Mama Bank: 'A bank for mothers' in Bougainville 'not to lose it to husbands'

The Women’s Micro Bank Limited (WMB), or Mama Bank as it is called, has been in operation on the Papua New Guinea mainland for some years. Photo: Autonomous Bougainville Government

This week, Bougainville is to get a new bank, one that is geared to providing banking services directly to women.

The Women's Micro Bank Limited (WMB), or Mama Bank as it is called, has been in operation on the Papua New Guinea mainland for some years.

The bank is a fully women community owned licensed Micro Bank regulated by Bank of PNG, and national MP for North Bougainville, Francesca Semoso, said there is a real need for such a service in her region.

She said the Mama Bank will have the digital resources to approach women at the markets and to do any necessary banking with them on the spot.

"The Mama Bank is actually a bank for the women. It's a bank for mothers," Semoso said.

Francesca Semoso Photo: Pacific Women in Business

"It's a bank that has actually done a bit of study and knows the challenges of women and the challenges of actually standing in a long queue in banks in Papua New Guinea, including Bougainville.

"So we decided that we would actually like to bring this bank into Bougainville, for the women."

"They can do their savings, do their loans, and a bank that can actually walk up to where the women are sitting at the roadside markets and doing their marketing.

She said it is a bank that looks at how can women save, how they can find money, "while they're breastfeeding their kids, while they're sitting on the roadside, doing just about everything they do"

Semoso said the Mama Bank was founded by women in PNG to ensure they could save money for school fees, for rainy days, and not lose it to husbands or partners.