BY SAMISONI PARETI

FOLLOWING DEVASTATING volcanic eruptions on Manam Island in 2004, and the complete evacuation to the mainland of the island’s 10,000 inhabitants, many of the islanders, including the Baliau people, have returned home to rebuild their lives.

But what cash-generating crop could possibly be grown here? Peter Muriki thinks he’s got the answer. “Devastated as it is, Manam can still sell copra, some cocoa and fish as a means of survival,” he says.

A Manam Islander, Mr Muriki is also the executive director of the Bogia Cooperative Society, which has been canvassing for community saving schemes, called community development centres, in isolated rural places like Manam..

In houses made of woven coconut leaves, with support from the Cooperative, men and women from Baliau formed themselves into cash saving groups. By July this year, there were five groups each comprising 70-100 members.

“At the end of each week, two weeks or month, members come together in their groups to deposit their savings with the group’s teller,” explained Michael Rupunae, a member of the savings scheme on Manam Island. “It is then the teller’s job to deposit the savings with the bank at Madang.”

Mr Rupunae makes it sound simple, but banking at Madang requires an hour’s open boat travel from Manam to Bogia on across rough channel. Then the teller takes a three-hour mini-bus ride to Madang, 200 km of road that used to be paved but is now dotted with pot holes.

According to Mr Rupunae, it is worth it. “No more should we rely on others,” he said. “This is one way we can help ourselves.”

Mr Rupunae and his members admit that finding money to save is a struggle. “It is hard to save here on the island, but after what we have gone through over the past 5 or 6 years, we know that this savings scheme could offer us some economic independence,” he said.

The development of good financial services is a key component of the government’s strategy emphasising the importance of financial services for economic and social development, particularly the need to improve access to financial services in rural areas.

“Better access to financial services will assist the poor to create micro-enterprises and generate broad-based income,” says Eugenue Zhukov, regional director of the Asian Development Bank. “This will lead to new employment opportunities, a key development objective of PNG.”

However, saving is only part of the solution. “Very limited access to credit continues to be a serious impediment to private sector development and sustainable growth in PNG,” says Mr Zhukov.

The Bogia Cooperative Society is planning to make the transition from savings to lending, according to Mr Muriki. “We would really like to get into micro-loans. Some people are giving up savings because they are not seeing the other side of micro-finance.” The next step will be finding a lending partner, or, failing that, going into lending on its own.

Once the Cooperative moves from savings to lending, the opportunity private enterprise offers to economically-deprived areas like Manam Island could be substantial.

Managed well, it could even lead to a small economic revolution in the development of small but viable cottage industries in Madang’s rural and remote communities.

Source: Asian Development Bank