The National Bank of Vanuatu or NBV and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program or PFIP have announced a strategic partnership that will make banking services more accessible to rural Vanuatu.
Over the next three years, the bank's aim for rural banking and microfinance is to extend its e-banking network to an additional 5 provincial branches and enable an additional 13,000 rural producers and micro-entrepreneurs to be banked.
To help achieve this end, PFIP will contribute 212,000 US dollars to support NBV's current investment in IT and communications infrastructure for rural banking.
NBV's Managing Director, Bob Hughes, says rural banking and microfinance are a very important part of NBV's corporate mission.