Breaking down gender barriers for Pacific women through Micash: Banking for the Unbankable

Sabine Spohn, Private Sector Development Specialist, Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an incredibly diverse, vibrant country of many challenges, but also of boundless opportunities. When members of ADBs Executive Board visited Papua New Guinea earlier in 2013, they were able to witness firsthand the impact of ADBs assistance on improving the livelihoods of the rural poor, especially women. In the small village of Boera, about 30 minutes outside Port Moresby, ADB Members met with a street vendor, a local Micash agent, and several women in the community who used the service. Women expressed their great appreciation for this type of service, since previously they were not able to access such financial services in their villages. Now I can easily do my little business, save the money and only use it whenever I need it a village woman said. . A service of Nationwide Microbank (NMB), MiCash is the first bankled mobile phone banking product in the Pacific. MiCash allows vendors and consumers who may live hundreds of kilometers from the nearest bricks and mortar bank branch to access their money, make and receive payments, even save a little for a rainy day - all through their mobile device. Most people with MiCash accounts are accessing financial services for the first time in their lives. MiCashs roll out was developed with the support of the Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI). The PSDI is a regional technical assistance facility, cofinanced by the Australian Agency for International Development, the New Zealand Aid Programme, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The first pilot in Papua New Guinea was introduced in West New Britain Province in 2012. It has since been rolled out across Papua New Guinea. In August 2012, NMB won the 2012 PNG Institute of Directors Award for the most innovative company of the year for the MiCash product. More broadly, MiCash and NMB have been a powerful driver to enhance the economic empowerment of women. MiCash may still be in the pilot stage, but early feedback has revealed some specific advantages that mobile phone banking can provide women: (i) (ii) (iii) a reduced need to have cash and the ability to store it safely; the ability to transact at a network of agents, without needing to travel to bank branches (recognizing the limitations on time due to womens double burden of work, and the security risk of lone travel in Papua New Guinea); and the ability to share their banking information only with whom they choose (compared to a passbook savings account, which cannot be easily kept private).

As of April 2013 it had nearly 12,000 active customers (34 per cent female and 55 per cent rural), with 81 per cent thereof previously unbanked.

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