The Board and management of SME Corporation wish to advise all Provincial Administrations, District Development Authorities, Local Level Government Offices, key partner stakeholders and, the MSME owners that the Corporation will officially launch he nationwide Training of Trainers (TOT) roll-out on Tuesday 29th of June 2021, at Gateway Hotel, Port Moresby.
Immediately after the launching, the nationwide TOT roll-out will commence, starting with the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) from the Monday 5th -16th of July 2021. The rest of the regional TOT will immediately follow per the TOT roll-out implementation schedule below.
PNG SMEC Corporation’s Training of Trainers (TOT) Program Purpose
The TOT is purposely to build the capacities and business development competencies of business development officers in the economic sector divisions in the Provincial Administrations, District Development Authorities and Local Level Government Offices. All trained officers under the TOT program will then go out and conduct training for MSMEs in their respective Provinces, Districts, and LLGs. SMEC will work with them to ensure quality training is delivered to MSMEs and conduct monitoring and evaluation to measure the social and economic impacts of the trainings delivered nation wide.
SME Corporation is the mandated and lead implementing agency of the National SME Policy and responsible for promoting MSME development in the country. MSME training and capacity building is one of SMEC’s key functions and SMEC has the capacity to deliver the Financial Literacy Training to MSMEs through it’s flagship Internal Labour Organization (ILO) Start-Your-Business (SYB) and Improve-Your-Business (BIY) training program.
Since the Introduction to ILO SIYB MSME Training Program to PNG in 1996, it has taken SMEC 24 years to contextualize the training materials to meet the entrepreneurship development needs and demands of MSMEs in PNG. Further, SMEC has build its institutional capacity over these years and currently it has 108 network training partners, 154 certified trainers, and 23 Master Trainers and trained more than 100,000 MSMEs throughout the 22 provinces and 89 districts in PNG.
National Government’s Commitment in Supporting SMEs in PNG
The Marape-Basil Government’s vision and priority on growing and developing the MSME and Agriculture sectors has now challenged the SMEC management and board to re-evaluate its existing capacities and MSME development programs and projects to reposition itself as the lead MSME development agency and fully support the Government. Amongst other key policy and legislative reforms, the TOT roll-out is one of the results of this re-evaluation process to further build SMEC’s capacity so that it can develop the necessary partnerships to promote the development of MSMEs starting from the ward level up to the provincial and national levels.
National Government’s Financing Partnership Agreement (FPA) Loan Facility For MSMEs.
Further, the Marape-Basil Government through the National Executive Council (NEC) approved the establishment of the Financing Partnership Agreement (FPA) facility with the Bank of South Pacific (BSP) and the National Development Bank (NDB) to roll-out the K200 million MSME concessional loans. However, eighty-five (85%) of the PNG indigenous population are illiterate and engaged in the informal economy and are not able to access loans under the government’s Financing Partnership Agreement. It is therefore necessary now for SMEC to build and further expand its capacity through the SIYB TOT roll-out and conduct financial literacy trainings with its partners to build the capacities and qualify this 85% to access the loans from NDB (K80 million) and BSP (K100 million)
It is becoming more imperative ow for the MSME development agenda to be aligned and integrated into all social and economic development plans at the National, Provincial, District, LLG and, Ward levels. The Training of Trainers (TOT) program roll-out is an important project for the Marape-Basil Government and its commitment to MSME development at the Provinces, Districts and Local Level Government levels.
PNG SMEC Coporation Activity Support At Provincial Level.
The Management and Board of SME Corporation is calling on all Provincial Administrations, District Development Authorities, and LLG Offices to partner with SMEC in the national TOT roll-out program by nominating relevant officers and provide counter support for its successful implementation. Official letters have already been sent to all the Provincial Administrations, District Development Authorities, and LLG Offices including key national stakeholders to partner with SME Corporation to implement the TOT roll-out.
The Official TOT launching and nationwide TOT roll-out schedule is given below for all stakeholders information and purposes.
The Board and management of SMEC are optimistic about the nationwide TOT roll-out and, remains committed to supporting the Marape-Basil Government’s vision and priorities on Taking Back PNG through development of the MSME and agriculture sectors.
Contact Details for Further Information at PNG SMEC Corporation on TOT Program.
Further information on the launching and the TOT roll-out can be obtained by contacting Mr.Peter Piawu on Phone 323 5816 or Mr. Peter Amos and Mr. Bill Reuben on phoe 311 2150 or emails PPiawu@smecorp.gov.pg or PAmos@smecorp.gov.pg or BReuben@smecorp.gov.pg
“GROWING MSMEs IS GROWING PNG”
Endorsed by
Petrus Ralda
Managing Director
Source: Official Launching Public Notice published by PNG SME Corporation in the local media on Monday 21st June 2021.
