United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have formally launched the Rapid Financing Facility (RFF) project that will enable women entrepreneurs to access affordable financial products and services in places and times suitable for them.

The project is aimed at supporting women entrepreneurs through partnerships with service providers focused on access to finance and digital financial services.

The project takes a multi-pronged approach in addressing various barriers faced by the women entrepreneurs in the formal and informal sectors. The key interventions include –

• Women Entrepreneurship Capacity Building
• Digital finance for Women Entrepreneurs – Innovation Fund
• Adoption of e-commerce by Women Entrepreneurs
• Incubator Facility for Women Entrepreneurs
• Access to finance for Women Entrepreneurs through Portfolio Guarantee’

The launch saw the signing of the performance-based grant funding agreements with five partners under the UNCDF’s “Women’s Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Fund” and “E-Commence Support Fund” as part of their support to women entrepreneurs in Port Moresby and Lae.

Emstret Holdings, PNGX Markets, Tok Stret Consulting, Westpac and Agbook have been selected through a competitive process and will now initiate their activities to deploy gender-responsive trainings and capacity building inputs that meet the needs of the informal women traders, women micro-entrepreneurs, and formally established women led businesses and Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The Fund was launched in November last year to complement the Government of Papua New Guinea’s (GoPNG) efforts in addressing the COVID-19 driven economic shocks on the formal and informal economy especially women entrepreneurs as validated by the Social-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) carried out by the United Nations System.

UNCDF Country Lead, Jagdeep Dahiya said “the Fund seeks to support the development of digital and financial literacy solutions targeting women-led MSMEs and women entrepreneurs to enhance their financial management and business skills in the country. We expect over 5,000 women entrepreneurs to benefit from these trainings before the end of 2022”

Jagdeep added that “the partners are expected to contribute at least 20% of the total project cost (such technical resources, staff, and operational expenses) so they have a better grasp of the digital and financial literacy to improve their business and financial management capacities through appropriate market-based business development services.”

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative, Dirk Wagener said “the RFF tires to support women entrepreneurs by working with some of the finance service providers to promote solutions that are both fitting, suitable and affordable in terms of financial products and services”.

“That means access to finance for women entrepreneurs through digital financial services where entrepreneurs have a lot to catch up on to build the capacity down to the lowest level of the informal sector. We know that the informal sector is a large sector that drives the economy which is largely dominated by women here in Papua New Guinea. These women need access to those digital solutions and financial services to suit their needs.
Dirk added that “the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, youth, poor households, informal and self-employed workers and MSMEs who were not ready to meet some of those challenges that were presented to them”.

Acting Governor of Bank of Papua New Guina (BPNG), Mr. George Awap said “with CoVID-19 pandemic we all witnessed how important it is to leverage technology and digitization for keeping us ticking and bring in new means and ways of doing business. These new things should trickle down to the women and entrepreneurs in formal and informal sector, which are critical players in our economy”.

Small, Medium, Enterprise Corporation (SMEC) Chairman, Mr. John Pora said “the SME space has got a lot of room for growth and that room for growth will be defined by how we make relevant the programs, the re-architecture of what building and constructing looks like in terms of citizen participation”.

“Access to finance is one of the difficult areas and it’s not only the responsibility of the government to provide money or our development partners to facilitate development funds, but it also requires our citizens to step up”.

Mr. Pora added that the country needs a greater base of formal citizens.
A series of interventions are planned as part of the project for the year 2022 including the first ever Portfolio Guarantee and Innovation fund for Digital Financial Services adoption by Women Entrepreneurs of Papua New Guinea.

About UNDP
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet.
Development challenges in Papua New Guinea are as diverse and complex as the country itself. To respond to these challenges, UNDP in PNG concentrates its efforts on building the country’s capacity to promote inclusive, pro-poor growth, effective governance, and sustainable and resilient development. We help our partners in identifying relevant solutions to today’s complex, trans-boundary development challenges.

About UNCDF
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels, financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives and by showing how localized investments – through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance – can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance work for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.