MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Women’s Micro-Bank Limited of Papua New Guinea (PNG) Piloting 6 Branchless Banking “Mama-Bank Access Points” with Support from UN’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP)

Women’s Micro-Bank Limited, a subsidiary of the PNG Women in Business Foundation, recently announced it will establish six branchless banking locations, one each in six different regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Each of these Mama-Bank Access Points will be staffed by two employees with tablet computers that can identify users via biometric information without the need for a data connection. In addition to reducing women’s travel costs to access services, Women’s Micro-Bank projects an increase in savings deposits, which will lower its cost of loan funds.

The UN’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Program, which is funded by the EU and the governments of Australia and New Zealand, is backing the branchless banking program with financial and technical support.

Access to financial services in rural areas “is important as particularly women are more likely to use financial services when they are close by and easy to sign-up for and use,” according to PFIP Programme Manager Bram Peters.

Founded in 2010, Women’s Micro-Bank reports to the US-based Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) total assets of USD 2.5 million, 4 offices, deposits of USD 1.1 million held for 15,000 depositors, and a gross loan portfolio of USD 250,000 outstanding to 320 borrowers as of 2016.

Sources and Additional Resources

PFIP press release
http://www.pfip.org/newsroom/press-releases/2018-2/womens-micro-bank-open-access-centres-around-png-test-new-branchless-banking-model/

PNG Women in Business
http://pngwib.com/

MIX institutional profile
https://www.themix.org/mixmarket/profiles/womens-micro-bank

MIX country profile
https://www.themix.org/mixmarket/countries-regions/papua-new-guinea

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.