Prime Minister Marape stated in Parliament recently that his government made loan facilities available to SMEs. He said that smaller businesses are able to access credit facilities at Bank South Pacific (BSP) and National Development Bank (NDB).
Marape made the statement in a discussion relating to the projected Credit Guarantee Corporation of Papua New Guinea. It was a response to a question from Hon. Richard Maru, the MP for Yangoru-Saussia, about whether the government would support the Corporation before the election.
The Prime Minister said that the government had not started work on the Corporation yet, due to the funding facilities. However, he stressed that this doesn’t mean the Corporation, which would work with the Bank of PNG, was not important.
Marape said, “The BSP programme has been working well and, for the second year in a row, we’ve given another K100 million. They have been lending money, not just the K100 million-plus that we’ve given but added that they’ve been able to provide.”
“SMEs have been lining up at BSP trying to access credit facilities. I would point all SMEs out there in search of credit facilities to BSP. We’re working with BSP and NDB so that the collateral and lending requirements are softened to ensure ease of access of these credit funds we made available for our SMEs,” Prime Minister Marape said.
