VILLAGE WOMEN GREEN CREDIT FOR SMEs DEVELOPMENT

In Papua New Guinea, women and girls have been culturally conditioned to occupy sub-ordinated position. Their progress in business and politics are limited by male dominating decision making and property ownership. Women and girls are restricted to agricultural production and household chores. However, women are found to be sustaining households from poverty, when men migrate to urban centres in search for jobs.

Our Organization, People's Action For Rural Development (PsA4RD) viewed that women and girls are enabled to access appropriate financial systems and use financial services, they will be able to adequate finance capital costs and working of their MSMEs and accumulate assets for their households. From 2009 to 2014, we pilot tested the "Village Women"s Banking Program (VWBP)". It was aimed at observing poor village women accessing savings and loans products and services and how they behaved when they accessed the VWBP financial system and behaved in terms of complying to savings and lending policies. Some 4,000 poor village women accessed micro- to small to finance their income generating activities. Some 8500 loans were disbursed for various investments from agricultural micro-enterprises to non-agricultural enterprises that women and girls need credit finance for expansion of their MSMEs. Unserved and unbanned poor village women were found to use savings and loans services of the VWBP Financial System. They understood borrowing money and repaying with interest. Loan cycles were repeated to an average of eight loan cycles per year. Knowledge developed from the VWBP will be transferred through the replication in terms of developing a feminist financial system that channels credit finance to green women SMEs linked to commercial to agricultural, forestry and fisheries production systems. The problem is women and girls are not actively and equally accessing financial and business development services. 

The VWBP reached 4,300 poor village women from 2009 to 2014. Access to appropriate women focused financial system is the solution. The financial institution after the VWBP is called "Village Women's Green Micro-Bank". It is women focused and enables mobilizing climate and distributing it to village green women entrepreneurs who are modelled in the transformation process to be smart owners and managers of SMEs. The new rural economic modelling targets 100,000 village green entrepreneurs to be transformed to formal SMEs. A core bank system and a FinTech digitalized platform  will be adapted to manage the clients data files and transactions. These modelled 100,000 Out-growers will increase production of major agricultural and forestry commodities in the country. The VWGMB is the investment vehicle that will drive public and private investors to finance production of commodities. All the raw materials will be processed and packed into quality food products for food demand of the rural population. 

The "Village Women's Green Micro-Bank" is the Women Focused Financial Institution that designs it's systems and processes for women and girls SMEs. VWGMB's loan products are linked to commercialized production of selected agricultural and Forestry commodities through a '30 Years Tree Based Investment System' that aims to supervise production and get participants out of poverty and concurrently contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation. 100, 000 village women green entrepreneurs will enter  the modelling platform and learn new ideas and technologies for growing and raising livestock  for commercialized markets. A suitable FinTech digitalized platform will be adapted to enable communication, learning, and data management. The network will be the largest in the country linked to the designed financial and production systems. The investment modelling attracts climate finance for green and blue economies development. The blended investment vehicle will raise up to US$50m from an initial capital for catalyst fund  of US$2m to establish the "Village Women's Green Micro-Bank". The activation of the catalyst  fund mobilizes private and public investors. This is up-scaling project evolving from the "Village Women Banking Program " implemented  from 2009-2014 by the People's Action For Rural Development Inc.

The management team comprises of technically and managerially qualified personnel with bachelors degrees and masters degrees in finance, banking, business management, IT specialists, fund managers, project/program managers, rural and agricultural and forestry enterprises development and food technologists. PARD ,the parent organization, keeps a database of competent personnel to be drawn from when suitable technical and managerial  personnel are needed.

The project targets 100,000 village women and youth informal and unbanked entrepreneurs. These are transformed household SMEs. With the average household members of 7, the total population reached is 700,000.

Solve will help in technical and financial support in FinTech adaptation, fund raising  and fund management technical support. Solve is requested to raise an initial capital of US$1.7m to help establish the catalyst fund to promote the impact development project to public and private investors to reach out 100,000 SMEs.