The Papua New Guinea Centre for Judicial Excellence (PNGCJE) continues to promote financial welfare by facilitating another Financial Literacy Training this year for officers of the National Judicial Staff Services (NJSS) at the Waigani National and Supreme Courts in the PNGCJE Training Room.

The two-day program saw a total of 26 participants with 13 attending on 21 July and another 13 on 22 July. PNGCJE Executive Director Dr. John Carey gave the opening remarks, encouraging the participants to build a culture of saving up for the future. “We should not be slaves to money, money should be the slave to us,” says Dr. Carey. He further admonished that, “We will all stop earning money one day, so we have to start putting some away for that day.”

The training was facilitated by PNGCJE Finance Manager Mr. Gitu Lago. Mr. Lago covered various vital topics on financial management, including understanding different types of loans and how it affects people; budgeting resources such as fortnightly income; exploring the six words of financial intelligence; and using debt to generate income without financial stress.

“This training is not based entirely on books, but on experience,” says Mr. Lago.  “I combined both my knowledge as an expert in financial management and my experience as a business owner and designed this training program so that you learn the important skills and techniques of financial management and entrepreneurship from first-hand experience.”

The main aim of the training was to help participants understand the process of being employees to becoming employers, then to business owners, and to become investors.

Being an accountant and an entrepreneur with a wealth of knowledge and experience in financial management, Mr. Lago continues to share his knowledge to help others make wise decisions and develop financial stability through the Financial Literacy Trainings since 2020.

The Financial Literacy training comes in two parts, covering areas on income, budgeting, savings, investing and managing records, which Mr. Lago has been planning to develop into a full certificate course for working professionals. It will be rolled out to other provinces in the country starting next month (August) and into the future.