By Harlyne Joku
A dynamic MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed between the Bank of PNG, CEFI (Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion) and the Department of Education at the Hilton Hotel today (Wednesday the 6th of January).
The MOU paves way for financial education to be included in the curriculum of schools and the training of teachers to educate children and students ranging from Elementary to Grade 12.
A pilot program will commence in the 2021 education year in February in 48 schools throughout PNG.
The Governor of the Bank, Loi M Bakani, CMG signed the partnership with Department of Education Secretary, Dr Uke Kombra, to promote Financial Inclusion partnership under the theme – Financial Education for a better future. The financial education initiative is to integrate financial education as a Relevant Needs-Based Curriculum to be integrated into the existing Standard Based Curriculum (SBC), with the objective of educating school children about money management, income generation, saving and budgeting, investments and credit.
The Governor of the Bank, Mr Loi M Bakani, CMG states that the module presents a relevant curriculum that facilitates the learning of social responsibility and financial competency.
“BPNG has invested in technological innovations to expand the access of financial products and services. These initiatives include the Regulatory Sandbox, Retail Electronic Payments System and Digital Identification Project which are key drivers of the financial products and services. Building Financial Education into our education curriculum will complement these innovations and allow our young generation to acquire knowledge and skills to build responsible financial behavior and competency.” Mr Bakani said.
Department of Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra says, “Jointly DoE and CEFI will ensure teachers are given specialized in-service financial education training and will be certified accordingly.
“We will ensure necessary arrangements are in place for project pre-planning and implementation in order to achieve an effective roll out of the financial education curriculum. The project team consisting of curriculum development specialist, CEFI and BPNG will provide technical oversight throughout the development, assessment, and delivery of the Curriculum.” Dr Kombra confirmed.
The project will work on developing the content scope and sequence of the financial education school curriculum to be developed into Teacher Resource Manuals and Student Activity Books suited to each phase of development and from Prep to Grade 12. The Financial Education Curriculum will be piloted in 48 schools in 2021 and 2022 before it can be rolled out to all schools in the country.
The Governor of the Bank of PNG Loi Bakani made remarks relating to the progress of the financial inclusion and financial literacy strategy launched in 2013.
Mr Bakani said the launch of the first national financial inclusion and financial strategy in 2013, unprecedented progress has been achieved in the past two years.
Progress made include;
- 1,187,024 new bank accounts were opened of which 462,939 (35%) were opened by women;
- 124,375 people were reached (47% women) with financial education;
- 67 new bank accounts, 73 ATMs, 4,959 EFTPOS and 233 new agents added onto the financial service network, in total 12,599 service outlets;
- 696,792 policy holders have taken out micro-insurance products;
- 315,993 people now linked their deposit accounts with Mobile network (Phone Banking).
Mr Bakani said the main aim of the strategy was to expand the financial service delivery to reach one million unbanked low-income people across the country of that 50 percent are women and youth.