NDB brings banking services to rural areas

The National Development Bank (NDB) in its efforts to provide inclusive financial services to a vast number of Papua New Guineans has been pushing for greater participation of the rural population. This has been realized through its subsidiary, Peoples Micro Bank Limited (PMBL), which has been the medium to taking banking services to the unbanked population estimated to be at two million.

NDB Group Managing Director, Moses Liu said, “PMB as the grassroots Bank offers affordable and accessible banking services without any recurring fees or monthly charges, making it ideal for our rural people and small income earners. Now with technological advances evolving rapidly, we are able to enhance our service delivery to our more than 70, 000 and growing active savers and promote greater access of financial services to everyone.”
PMBL since its establishment in 2013 has already embarked on several e-banking projects inclusive of SMS banking, mobile banking (USSD), ATM and Eftpos, and the cards project.

Mr. Liu added that to date, they have launched SMS banking, the first phase of mobile banking and the ATM/ Eftpos cards. “We have completed SMS Banking, and we are now working on phase two of mobile banking which is basically added functionalities like buying mobile credits from one’s account, third party transfers, loan repayments and fund transfers to other Banks. We are also in the process of delivering the ATM services to the other PMBL branches.”

Mr. Liu said that PMBL had come a long way in a short period of time to deliver a range of services and will continue to do so and deliver new and modern banking services to its customers. To date PMB has six branches strategically located in the country and still growing. “We are optimistic that in the next five years, PMBL will be the fastest and biggest micro bank for our rural people.”