Photo: CIC Acting Chief Executive Officer Charles Dambui (seated left) and CEFI Executive Director Saliya Ranasinghe sign the MoU Documents. Witnessing the signing are CIC Company Secretary Wilma Banake (left standing) and CEFI Head Trainer Jill Pijui.
The Coffee Industry Corporation (CIC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre of Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI). CIC Acting Chief Executive Officer Charles Dambui and CEFI Executive Director Saliya Ranasinghe signed the MoU in Port Moresby which will now enable the two organization to work in partnership to rollout financial literacy and financial inclusion to targeted coffee farming communities. This will allow savings culture introduced to coffee farmer’s households by teaching them how to make the right financial management decisions and allowing them to have access to a wide range of financial services that address their farming business or personal household needs.
The MoU will also allow CEFI to conduct Training of Trainers (ToT) to 100 CIC Extension Officers; 20 from each impact areas of the five regions including Upper Highlands, Lower Highlands, Momase, New Guinea Island and Southern. “A very historic occasion for Papua New Guinea (because) we are very proud that we are able to (sign this MoU) with the Coffee Industry Corporation because the coffee industry is one of the key industries in the country which brings in substantial revenue to the country,” said CEFI Executive Director Saliya Ranasinghe “We would like all Papua New Guineans to access to financial services which are delivered in a responsible and sustainable manner to improve farming activities and improve standard of living.” “We can make an impact if we work with economical active people.”
“What we sign today ((Wednesday February 09) ) will be one of the most critical activity for the farming communities whom you serve and we are extremely pleased and extremely grateful to the (CIC) CEO and his team for taking this initiative to partner with us (CEFI) to provide this important services to the farming communities,” Mr Ranasinghe said. CIC Acting Chief Executive Officer Charles Dambui said, “Coffee is grown in 18 of the 22 provinces and annually we generate 500-400 million kina into the country and over 55%-60% of that money goes directly to the farmers.”“(But) many of our farmers lack some knowledge when it comes to finance management. We want our farmers to be business man and women and not just subsistence farmers and the skills they are lacking is budgeting and savings.” “We have seen our coffee farmers pulling away from coffee because they do not have any money to invest back into the coffee garden and they do not have savings culture” “On behalf of the board and the management and the industry players we would like to thank CEFI, we will be working closely with CEFI to see that our farmers are financial literate,” Mr Dambui said.
Article courtesy of Centre of Excellence in Financial Inclusion
