Young Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs are helping to reactivate the country’s economy with new ideas and thriving projects. In this two-part special, meet some rising stars who are setting the pace for a reinvigorated innovation nation.

Burger queen Idau Raka and the Boss LAEdy Burgers team. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

There could be more than 50,000 small-to-medium businesses (SMEs) in Papua New Guinea, helping power the nation’s economy.

The PNG government wants that number to grow to 500,000 by 2030. This growth will create two million jobs and ultimately SMEs will contribute 50 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The Prime Minister, James Marape, has said the government will inject K200 million a year for the next 10 years into the sector, as well as offer tax incentives to SMEs.

Often, the SMEs are headed by young PNG entrepreneurs who have had a simple idea and developed it into a thriving business. Here, PNG Now meets six rising stars.

Rebekah Ilhave, 29, Tech whiz, Port Moresby

Niunet’s Rebekah Ilave. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

Rebekah Ilhave and Co-founder, PNG entrepreneur David Valentine, have created Niunet, a local high-speed wireless network that provides free access in PNG to educational content, including TED talks, open-source textbooks, Wikipedia and video tutorials.

Their education start up aims to help learning institutions deliver targeted educational content to students without internet access. It came about in response to the high cost of the internet in PNG, which they say keeps information out of the reach of young adults in the country.

Niuinet operates without the need of cellular network data or phone credit. All you need to tap is in a Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as a laptop, tablet, or a smartphone.

Before co-founding Niunet, Ilhave was working as an environmental analyst. ‘We were doing community outreach in some of the most remote parts of the Gulf Province, to talk about conservation and resource management with them,’ she says.

‘Some of the villages there had schools that only went up to Grade 2, and had a four-hour canoe trip to the nearest clinic. It was heartbreaking.

‘That night my team leader told me something I’ll never forget: “How can we talk with these people about working with us, when their basic needs like health and education aren’t being met?” That struck a chord with me, and it resonated with me for another year before I quit my job. I started developing Niunet full-time, and now I’m so much closer to living life in line with my beliefs.’

Idau Raka, 38, Burger queen, Lae

Burger queen Idau Raka and the Boss LAEdy Burgers team. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

Just two years after Raka started selling hamburgers in Lae, she has a following of 3000 people on Facebook for her Boss LAEdy Burgers homebased business.

Customers place their orders online and pick up from her house daily. Lamb kofta burgers, kumul burgers, wicked (chicken) wings and hot mess chips are some of the favourites on the menu, which ranges in price from K5–K30.

Raka runs the business while maintaining a full-time job with a courier and parcel company, but is helped by her supportive family – aunty Darusila Ranu, nephew Vian Kevon and her son Jack T Raka during school breaks.

‘My passion for cooking and being creative in the kitchen were the two main factors that nudged me to start my journey,’ she says.  ‘As well as that, I wanted to create a second income because I realised my fortnightly pay wasn’t enough to support my family of five.’

Boss LAEdy Burgers started in 2018 and early sales and the strong following on Facebook gave her confidence to invest back into the business in 2019. This year she is putting money aside for future investment.

Dean Arek, 26, Digital content provider, Port Moresby

Digital content provider Dean Arek. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

In 2016, the world came to Port Moresby in the form of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

Arek, just out of his teens, noticed that many of the soccer fans arriving into the country at that time were pleasantly surprised by what they found, despite the widespread negativity they had seen about Papua New Guinea on the internet.

Arek recalls that online searches about PNG automatically brought up stories about corruption, violence and even cannibalism.

He set about righting the wrong and started building web sites to showcase PNG in a positive way.

‘I wanted to counteract all the negativity online,’ he says.

The web sites kickstarted his entrepreneurial life in digital content creation and today he runs his own photography, videography, graphic artwork and web site creation business, called proficienteC.

His passion for digital content can keep him going 48 hours without sleep. ‘It really sets my soul on fire. I love what I do,’ he says. ‘The challenge of operating in a space that has very little structure and norms is the greatest form of motivation there is. What’s even better is I know so many amazing creators who are living their dream life through digital content creation.’

Arek has two photographers (one permanent and one casual) engaged in his photography business, which operates under the arm of Pixels Perspective. (You can see some of their work in this issue of PNG Now.)

He does most of the graphic design work but outsources when the workload gets too big. He is looking at expanding his team in the area of social media management.

The article ‘Smart Young Things: PNG’s Brightest Minds at Work’ was first published in the September 2020 issue of PNG Now. 

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Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs are challenging the status quo and seeking new opportunities to embrace change, give back to the community and help PNG’s economy thrive in the post-COVID world.

Tapioca Delight’s popular caramel cupcakes. Credit: Tapioca Delight

Ginia Sialis, 36, Cakes and catering, Port Moresby

Tapioca Delight’s Ginia Sialis. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

Eight years ago, Ginia Sialis wondered what would happen if she ever lost her office job, so she set about starting up a part-time business.

She came up with the idea to sell tapioca cakes to her fellow workers during lunch hour. The cakes were a huge hit.

About 12 months later, when Sialis did lose her office job, her cake-loving customers stayed loyal and continued to order her little delicacies.

This gave her the motivation to set up a fully-fledged cake and catering business, Tapioca Delight, named after the first cakes she sold.

‘I’m so happy I set out to sell that first tapioca cake from my lunch box,’ she says.

Sialis runs the business with her husband and has 11 staff.

She says an important philosophy of the business is helping community with employment opportunities.

‘We have a team of 11 staff who now have a full-time job thanks to our business. We want to do our part to bring Papua New Guineans out of poverty and into leading meaningful lives and improved standards of living for themselves and their families.’

With strong Christian values built into her business and personal life, she believes it’s what sets them apart. ‘My husband and I have gone back to our biblical roots to see what God’s word says about business, finance and life – and it’s all there! Not many people do this nowadays.

‘We’ve been in business since 2013 and can say we saw the biggest improvement in our lives and our business when we started making our faith walk, a 24/7 commitment rather than just a once-a-week Sunday church attendance.’

Nemika Brunton, 24, Jam entrepreneur, Alotau

Yanua Kitchen’s Nemika Bruton. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

A childhood pastime has developed into a viable business for Nemika Brunton, who has created Yanua Kitchen, a thriving cottage industry that is making some of the best homestyle jam in PNG

As a small girl, Brunton picked up her jam-making skills from her grandfather and mother during family cooking time. ‘My mum always made star fruit jam, so I remember watching her in the village,’ Brunton says.

Yanua Kitchen specialises in homemade jams using  local seasonal fruits, including star fruit and pomelo (a large citrus fruit).

‘The pomelo jam is my personal favourite because it goes so well on toast or buns,’ Brunton says.

Brunton has been encouraged by online interest in her business and, with the support of her partner Sioni, is expanding to produce larger quantities to keep up with demand. The next step will be to export her jams, she says.

Amanda Tau Kanasa, 30, Fashionista, Port Moresby

Pacificana’s Amanda Tau Kanasa. Credit: Pixels Perspective and Mangilea Photography

Amanda Tau Kanasa runs a fashion retail business called Pacificana, focusing her sales through online channels and through retail spaces such as POM City Markets.

Her slogan ‘look good, feel good’, has cemented her brand as one of the most well-known social media retailers in PNG.

Kanasa’s range of Pacific-themed clothing and accessories suits all ages and sizes.

Like many, she saw getting into business as a way of working in her own time and achieving financial freedom.

‘I love seeing people look good and feel good and I also love that through this I can show people that no matter how far they have gone in their education, there is always a way to achieve success. It’s not just about making money, it’s about making a difference in people’s lives.’

She prides herself on her work ethic and customer service, spending up to 16 hours a day working on her business, which she says also brings her lots of enjoyment.

‘I know one day all the hard work will pay off. If there is anything we focus on, it is making sure our customers know just how important they are to us.’

The article ‘Smart young things: Papua New Guinea’s brightest minds’ was first published in the September 2020 issue of PNG Now. See part one here.

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Julliane Terry, owner of the consultancy firm Tok Stret Consulting, has launched business incubator hub in Lae to foster innovation in PNG’s second city. ‘When something is happening in Lae, you can rest assured the rest of the country will benefit,’ she tells Business Advantage PNG.

From little things … Big things grow. Participants & staff at at the Lae SME Incubator Hub. Credit: Tok Stret Consulting

Through her company Tok Stret Consulting Ltd, Julliane Terry and her team have been offering consulting services in Lae, Papua New Guinea’s manufacturing and logistics hub, since 2017.

Tok Stret provides training, development and mentoring services to companies of every size as well as a Cultural Integration Program for Expats, which was created to raise awareness about cultural differences.

But 2020 was an uphill battle for Terry’s business, just as it was for many other companies. When COVID-19 hit, her phone didn’t stop ringing with bad news.

‘We had contracts lined up with big companies but everyone was calling to cancel or defer the programs, understandably,’ she tells Business Advantage PNG.

‘My husband and I sat down and looked at our skills. Our previous roles included management and corporate board experience. We knew we could help in maintaining large organisations operating while expats or senior nationals were out of the country due to COVID, so we did.

‘We also recognised that SMEs were suffering. We had put an SME program on the shelf for a while and were trying to get partnerships with the SME Corporation and Nambawan Super, but because corporate organisations have cumbersome processes it was taking a long time.

So we decided to launch it regardless, and funded it with the mantra “From little things… Big things grow”.’

On 26 July 2020, Lae SME Incubator Hub (LSIH) was launched, with the aim to help develop small-to-medium-sized business in Lae.

Program

Tok Stret’s Jullianne Terry. Credit: Tok Stret

‘Our platform is a one-stop shop for an MSME or SME – for anyone with a dream or already in business but struggling. Our programs are different to what is usually offered: most hubs in PNG are craft markets but ours is a place of learning, energy and growth.’

The hub offers short-burst sustained programs over six months. Terry describes them as ‘boot camps of the mind’, to develop core skills such as financial literacy, marketing, planning and budgeting, and healthy business habits.

Participants pay K10 for the program and work with, and learn from, other SMEs. Terry says that some participants have started to sell or utilise each other’s products and a few have signed partnerships with big companies. For example, the owner of the barbecue cooker business Kuk Blo Mi now has a support partnership with Origin Energy.

The hub is endorsed by the Lae City Authority and is in talks with the Small Medium Enterprise Corporation to use its workshops as a model for other hubs across the country.

‘When something is happening in Lae you can rest assured the rest of the country will benefit,’ says Terry. But she is keen to get the Lae model right first. ‘We still have a long way to go.’

Time to change

There are plans to move the hub from its current location at Okari Conference Centre to a new space within the same compound that will host the SME Incubator Building, an energy lab, WIFI hotspot and an internet café. The new centre will officially launch in March or April.

The move will also enable a disabled support program called Lost Tribe.

‘PNG is a country where our disabled people are overlooked, with little or no basic facilities,’ observes Terry, who is also a fierce advocate for equal gender participation and women’s rights.

She also plans to develop a community centre for women and girls where they would enjoy free access to WiFi, workshops and other programs to develop essential business skills, including financial and English literacy.

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Inspired by her fellow entrepreneurs, Emstret Holdings CEO Vani Nades has launched Shopsmart PNG, an online marketplace for Papua New Guineans to ‘do business, irrespective of size’.

Honey is just one of the product lines being sold on Shopsmart PNG.

In the past year, companies of every size have had to find innovative ways to do business to survive. Some businesses opted to launch online platforms, others found it easier to diversify, but small businesses had it particularly tough.

‘The time of COVID has been very, very challenging. One of the experiences is that we as SMEs have it really hard to keep up with rent and access to the market. It is difficult, and women in business in particular have been very resilient,’ Nades tells Business Advantage PNG.

‘Shopsmart is a digital inclusiveness platform that makes it possible for SMEs and informal markets to connect to a wider market nationwide and globally.’

Nades says that she drew inspiration from her own challenges and fellow entrepreneurs, who face challenges because of the logistics and cost of getting a product to a customer. Their struggles led her to launch Shopsmart PNG, which claims to be the country’s first ecommerce marketplace.

‘Shopsmart is a digital inclusiveness platform that makes it possible for SMEs and informal markets to connect to a wider market nationwide and globally,’ explains Nades.

She and her team liaise with business owners to help them to register as Vendor to start and manage their online shop. It’s a straightforward process: the business owner contacts Shopsmart PNG or easily can go online to shopsmartpng.com complete details as a vendor and submit for approval. Once the business is approved, ‘their space is created, they can go online, upload their products or services and start trading from anywhere at their comfort zones. This is very convenient.’

‘All we want is to promote the uniqueness of PNG in the global market, we have potential to do so,’ says Nades.

PNG’s first eBay

Emstret CEO Vani Nades at the launch of Shopsmart PNG. Credit: Emstret

Since the launch we have experienced an increase in vendors that are in the business of artisans, honey and coffee producers, spice vendors and clothing vendors many more are signing up. Nades describes as ‘PNG’s first eBay’.

Shopsmart applies best online practices and has integrated Kina Bank and Bank South Pacific’s internet payment gateways to facilitate payment in PNG and around the world.

It is also working with PNG Air, Post PNG, FedEx and DHL to address PNG’s logistical challenges and guarantee the delivery of goods door-to-door anywhere in PNG and around the world. With this distribution channels, customers are able to get their tracking number, and then their goods packaged and secured. ‘

‘At the back end we make sure customers receive their goods,’ says Nades.

She says that every time there is a transaction, ‘the supplier gets a notification via email and we get a notification as well. We can say to the shop owner, “hey, have you seen this email?” And make sure the customers get a tracking number for their goods.’

Getting on board

Shopsmart PNG offers four different plans for vendors, including a free option, Premium Plan, Gold Plan and Unlimited Plan. Those on paid plans have their own online shop.

Nades is providing training on ecommerce platforms and helps vendors with branding.

‘The challenge is some users don’t have experience or exposure to do digital business. So we are going in partnership with various organisations to run digital online training platforms for Shopsmart,’ she explains.

‘When they grow, we grow as well. At the end of the day, every one of us, belong to a community.’

Shopsmart also has an electronic wallet (ewallet) so people can top up their account and do transfers. In the future, she plans to launch a solution for secure cashless transaction to further help local entrepreneurs especially in the rural villages across PNG.

‘We are solving distribution challenges and market reach, she adds. ‘We try to develop partnerships as we go along, to bring them in, to actually help our SMEs. When they grow, we grow as well. At the end of the day, every one of us belongs to a community.’

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For coffee lover and entrepreneur Georgina Benson it’s is all about flavour and quality – so she is introducing to Papua New Guinea a new way to prepare and enjoy local coffee.

Credit: Godfreeman Kaptigau

Like a tea bag … but for coffee. Yes, you read that right. Beautiful, ground coffee from the mountains of Eastern Highlands Province is now available in heat resistant porous bags.

Mohoné Coffee has an ambitious goal to normalise Papua New Guineans drinking strong and delicious pure PNG coffee, instantly, instead of instant threein-one coffee imported from overseas.

Georgina Benson, Owner and General Manager, has been a coffee lover all her life and got the idea to start Mohoné while holidaying in New Zealand, where she says she tasted the best coffee of her life.

‘No sugar. It was black, pure black. And it was the best ever,’ she says.

‘That was my first time drinking really nice coffee. So I thought to myself, we in Papua New Guinea produce quality coffee, but I’ve never tasted it like that. I was upset that we don’t drink that quality of coffee that we farm.’

On her return to PNG, she made it her mission to change the coffee culture in the country. Unimpressed by the fact that the Papua New Guinean go-to is imported three-in-one sachets of dehydrated coffee seeds mixed with sugar and milk, rather than the organic coffee beans PNG is well known for, Benson studied the industry and local market for three years.

‘I found that coffee is the second-largest traded commodity in the world, second to oil and gas. And we farm some of the world’s best, however our market is flooded with imported instant threein-one coffee,’ she said

Only the best

According to her research, a single packet of three-in-one coffee is 70 per cent sugar. Many instant coffee drinkers then add sugar again.

‘So I asked myself, how can we change this? How can we satisfy customer demand for convenient instant coffee while using our own coffee and keeping the money in the country?’

Enter Mohoné Coffee. Mohoné, meaning ‘my daughter’ in Benson’s Eastern Highlands dialect, is sourced from organic green beans from small-hold farmers in the Eastern Highlands Province.

‘We need to change our mindset about coffee. The argument about instant three-in-one coffee being more affordable is invalid because we have suppliers like Kongo who sell their sachet for K4.’

Benson says that if people can spend K5 for betelnut and cigarettes in a day, they can afford local coffee from brands such as Kongo Coffee, which sells small coffee packets for K4.

‘It’s a mindset issue,’ says Benson. ‘We need to change our mindset about coffee. The argument about instant three-in-one coffee being more affordable is invalid because we have suppliers like Kongo who sell their sachet for K4.’

Currently Mohoné Coffee supplies the PNG hospitality industry, catering services and schools, and is distributed to shops such as Andersons in Lae. Plans are in place to introduce the product to shops in Port Moresby, where the bulk of Papua New Guinean coffee enthusiasts are based.

People who have tasted the coffee have raved about it.

One reviewer said: ‘It’s got a distinct taste. It’s very smooth, not overpowering and it’s just an easy way to enjoy coffee, instead of going through the process of grinding your beans and processing it in a coffee machine.’

The article ‘It’s all in the bag’ was first published in the June 2021 issue of PNG Now, Papua New Guinea’s leading lifestyle magazine.

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An Emstret Holdings alumnus has opened Sushi Fix, a Japanese food restaurant specialising in sushi, with a Papua New Guinean twist.

Sushi Fix’s chef De’Bono. Credit: Dean Arek

Restaurants are a rare business venture for Papua New Guineans, and one that specialises in a niche Asian food is even more uncommon.

This hasn’t stopped young local chef De’Bono Paraka from daring to dream. With Sushi Fix newly opened at the Wellness Lodge in Boroko, he is confident of success despite hospitality businesses being under stress due to COVID-19.

‘Existing businesses were built to run pre-pandemic and during this time, when people are rethinking their operations, I’m building a space that is more flexible and dynamic.’

‘During the pandemic is when the inspiration to push the sushi came about. This is a light food that doesn’t require much preparation and is stored easily,’ De’Bono tells PNG Now.

‘Existing businesses were built to run pre-pandemic and during this time, when people are rethinking their operations, I’m building a space that is more flexible and dynamic,’ he says.

As De’Bono’s focus has always been promoting healthy food, the idea with Sushi Fix is to encourage a healthy fast-food culture in PNG.

‘This is a healthy alternative to the usual and it’s a great light choice for workers who don’t want to feel tired and heavy after lunch,’ he says.

Credit: Dean Arek

The menu has a Western influence, with affordable and top-quality options packed with all the flavours of traditional Japanese sushi, and a few surprises hidden in between.

The chicken and avocado rolls are a favourite, garnished with toasted sesame seeds, and a variation called the Pini Roll, named after champion PNG swimmer Ryan Pini, includes his personal added preference of cream cheese.

‘The balance of flavours in sushi is very delicate and it gets quite technical, but we’re still learning and improving,’ De’Bono says.

De’Bono manages an all-local team of three chefs and three administration staff. Starting from humble beginnings only four months ago, De’Bono was initially assisted by Emstret Holdings, which provided him with a point of sale at its SME resource centre.

Opening at the Wellness Lodge in June was unexpected, however. He says it came as a timely market and get used to running operations.

The ambitious chef is determined to go even further with his sushi bar dream and hopes to one day own his own space with an automated restaurant where customers receive their meals via a ‘sushi train’ (conveyor belt) – a hit in sushi bars around the world and certainly a vision that will provide a unique dining experience for Papua New Guineans.

Where

Sushi Fix is at the Wellness Lodge at Boroko, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 3pm. Vegan aubergine and avocado sushi rolls are 12 kina for six, chicken 15 kina, salmon 16 kina and crab 17 kina. See the Sushi Fix Facebook page or call 7419 720

KNOW YOUR JAPANESE

Master these terms and you’ll be on your way to becoming an expert in Japanese cuisine.

Sushi: Seafood, vegetables or meat with rice.

Sashimi: Thinly sliced raw fish, usually tuna or salmon, served without rice. It can be rolled (maki) in a seaweed sheet (nori) or served on rice (nigiri).

Wasabi: A very spicy green paste served with sushi and sashimi. Beware!

Futomaki: Futo means ‘thick or fat’ and is the biggest sushi roll, sometimes with several fillings. It’s the one most commonly seen at restaurants and takeaway shops.

Hosomaki: Small or shortened sushi rolls with one filling.

Nigiri: Thin slice of a seafood on a layer of rice.

Ramen: A noodle soup dish.

Tempura: Battered and deep fried seafood and vegetables.

Yakitori: Grilled chicken, often served on skewers.

The article ‘Sushi with PNG flair’ was first published in the August/September 2021 issue of PNG Now, Papua New Guinea’s leading lifestyle magazine.

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Six months into his five-year term, the Chairman of the Small and Medium Enterprises Corporation of Papua New Guinea, John Pora, talks exclusively to Business Advantage PNG about the government body’s ambitious plans to develop the SME sector.

The SME Corporation’s John Pora. Credit: Godfreeman Kaptigau

If the PNG government is to reach its stated goal of bringing 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) into existence by 2030, John Pora says the Small and Medium Enterprises Corporation (SME Corp) must have the capacity to activate around 240 new entities every day across PNG’s 22 provinces.

As the arm of the PNG government that deals with all things SME, Pora says the SME Corp has formulated three strategies geared towards building a bridge between the government and the MSME sector.

‘We’ve got so much raw resources and land, and we don’t have the belief that we can do something with it.’

The SME Corp is planning to the launch its strategy document, The Road to Fifty, in September. Referring to the 50th anniversary of PNG’s Independence, which will occur in 2025, the strategy is based on three principles: integration, communication, and people, processes and performance.

‘We’re [also] looking at the [internal] business side of things: as a government body, we rely on tax but we don’t want to tell our people to do business while we remain on the government teat,’ Pora tells Business Advantage PNG.

Expansion

Among various projects to help meet the 500,000 target, the SME Corp is launching provincial business incubation centres in West New Britain (construction is expected to commence by the end of the year) and upgrading a textile centre in Port Moresby.

The corporation also has plans to move from a policy-driven body to one of implementation, by enabling direct public access to its resources and services.

‘These are exciting times which require an organisational cultural shift. I think, as a country, we’re ready for it’, Pora says.

He makes clear that his goal is to prepare the corporation for the turn of the PNG’s half-century independence celebrations in 2025.

‘I come representing my family that have been in the public service for the past 57 years – government was our life.’

‘That itself is going to be a dynamic period to adjust to, but over the next four years I’m confident that the drive and strategies we’re putting in are going to shift us into the direction we should be in today’, he says.

Pora says the speed at which PNG has transitioned has created a vast gap between the formal and informal economy. The question always is, how we can bring our people forward into the future?

‘We’ve got so much raw resources and land, and we don’t have the belief that we can do something with it,’ he says.

Pora is keen to change this.

Background

Pora brings to his role a colourful background, from being brought up by his grandparents in a village setting for a portion of his childhood to experience in his family’s successful businesses.

‘I come representing my family, who have been in the public service for the past 57 years. Government was our life, with my parent’s various roles in public service and nation building and I’m honoured to contribute in my time,’ he says.

Pora is a director himself of various entities in the SME sector, has worked across 14 provinces and 10 countries, and has 20 years’ experience in the field of ecommerce. He appears a well-suited to help PNG achieve its 500,000 goal.

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This year, Papua New Guinea saw the launch of Jungle, an online market place for businesses of all sizes. Jungle’s co-founders share with Business Advantage PNG the challenges they’ve overcome and their views on the future of online retailing in PNG.

Jungle employee Batsheba Kare. Credit: Jungle

Jungle was developed by co-founders Christopher O’Brien, Tom Bill and Demetri Allayialis to deliver a ‘world-class’ service that allows widespread distribution of products across Papua New Guinea at cost-effective prices.

Allayialis says that when he was travelling from Australia to PNG or from Port Moresby to other PNG cities, he used to see a lot of people carrying products back to their towns and then using shipping companies to send those products to locations that lack airports.

‘Competition is welcome in the space because, as O’Brien explains, it helps all players up their game and gets people used to the concept of buying online’

‘I just thought, it’s so difficult for half of the people in PNG to actually get good quality goods. And then you have all these small towns where, for example, the prices for a TV are three or four times higher than in POM, but the cost of shipping is not that much.’

Jungle, as Allayialis says, ‘wants to take the hardship out of it all and ensure people across PNG can purchase goods from the same areas at the same prices. We want to make it a bit easier for everyone.’

Vendors

All vendors who appear on the marketplace have been checked, and only businesses registered with the Investment Promotion Authority have a storefront in Jungle.

Companies such as Brian Bell, NGIP Agmark, TE (PNG) Limited and many others are already trading through the platform.

Smaller businesses have also started to show interest in becoming Jungle vendors.

‘We are starting to allow them [to join], but the SMEs have to show they are a registered company and that they have been operating for at least 12 months,’ O’Brien tells Business Advantage PNG.

‘We encourage SMEs to apply. We want to encourage all those mums and dads who are doing crafts and trying to sell their Meri blouses,’ adds Allayialis.

It’s a matter of trust

Online market places are still a relatively new development in PNG. Competition is welcome in the space because, as O’Brien explains, it helps all players up their game and gets people used to the concept of buying online – trust is key here.

This is where Jungle attempts to separate itself from the pack. Its strength, according to O’Brien, ‘is bringing customers people who want to buy an item and showing them a great time, giving them amazing customer services and delivering their products at the right price and at the right time.’

Their philosophy is to always put the customer first.

Jungle has implemented Kina Bank’s online payment platform to facilitate transactions and has had conversations with delivery and postal services in the country to try to allow for accessible and on-time delivery of products.

Challenges

Bill explains the team is continuously optimising processes to deal with road infrastructure problems. He says infrastructure issues will need to be solved to keep up with the changes the ecommerce revolution is bringing to PNG.

Online market places in PNG present a unique challenge because for them to succeed and gain the trust of vendors and buyers, every aspect of the supply chain must run smoothly. This, in turn, affects customer behaviour and guarantees clients return.

‘It’s starting a sort of culture change,’ says Bill. ‘We call up every customer we have caught. We help them through the process. We make sure they get their package. We are checking every customer.’

‘We want to train people and teach each customer how to use Jungle,’ he adds. ‘It’s more than word of mouth.’

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What do micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Papua New Guinea actually need to thrive? Two entrepreneurs heavily involved in the country’s SME ecosystem gave their thoughts to the recent 2021 Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference.

An example of PNG artisanship. Credit: Cathy Wariapa

Emstret’s CEO Vani Nades during the launch of Shopsmart PNG. Credit: Emstret

While Papua New Guinea is undergoing something of a boom in SME development, the country’s small businesses still face a lot of challenges.

Vani Nades, Managing Director at internet services provider Emstret Holdings, cites things like a lack of available capital, competing with the bigger players and often feeling isolated as key issues.

Her answer is a greater degree of collaboration between the smaller players in the market.

‘If people want something from PNG, people need to pay a proper price for it.’

‘Papua New Guinea SMEs need a bit of guidance, mentorship and having access to platforms where they can grow their business,’ Nades says.

‘They have great products and great services they just need a hand up from where they are to where they want to go. If you can connect them to people around the sector so it inspires them to keep working on their business model, then at the end of the day they want to impact their own communities.’

Connection is key

Pascoe Promotion’s Sylvia Pascoe.

Sylvia Pascoe of event and marketing business Pascoe Promotions agrees that many need some mentoring and support to grow their businesses.

She also believes that a key problem in PNG is that many people don’t realise the depth of products and services offered by SMEs, nor how to find them.

‘I run a page online called SMEs 4 Change [Facebook, 38K members] and the point of that is to give people the opportunity to seek out SMEs first,’ Pascoe says.

‘That came about because I do events and expos and there were a few companies that were coming to do events in PNG and they were shipping all their gear [into PNG], right down to their own forklift.

‘The idea that people think there are no forklifts in PNG shows that connections are key.’

Unique offerings

Both Nades and Pascoe talk up the originality and passion that many small business owners have in PNG, but also consider how the sector could grow.

‘PNG is very unique in its cultural way of doing things and the unique things I see are our artisans, our art and our craft,’ says Nades, whose company offers internet services for SMEs and encourages them to get into doing digital business.

‘That craft can be exported to the world that has a story to it, like a bilum. We are attached to tradition and our stories and we can take that out to the world and say “here we are”.’

Nades adds that the challenges of COVID-19 have also forced local businesses to innovate. ‘Because of COVID we launched our Shopsmart ecommerce platform.’

Pascoe agrees that PNG’s specialty is in its crafts and says more could be done to highlight the quality and care that goes into these products.

‘People ask if we can fill 20 containers worth of bilums and I explain that every single billum, every single basket, every single necklace is different,’ she says.

‘Every single item is unique and we want to keep the culture alive and to keep those items as valuable as possible because they are art. If people want something from PNG, people need to pay a proper price for it.’

But these artisan businesses need to be underpinned by the right business knowledge and support.

‘Basic business education is one of the things that people are always asking for,’ she says. ‘At the moment a lot of people don’t know where to get information and there is some hesitancy.’

Missed the 2021 Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference? Gain access to all the exclusive presentations, slides and videos from the conference with an on-demand ticket.

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Selling goods online is getting easier in Papua New Guinea, thanks to young entrepreneurs who have developed ecommerce solutions that promise to revolutionise business in the country.

Technology being developed by young and entrepreneurial Papua New Guineans is revolutionising the way things are done around the nation, from the way people shop to the way farmers sell their produce.

PGO!, for example, is PNG’s very own DoorDash. The app allows you to track your takeaway food order in real time, from when you place the order to when it’s at your doorstep.

Founder and Non-Executive Director, Andrew Kitum, is soon to expand the seamless on-demand delivery experience to include non-food vendors, such as grocery shops, pharmacies and SMEs.

Slowly edging into the eBay scene is new ecommerce site Shop Direct PNG. Owner Andy Lapthorne says that, unlike competitors Jungle and Shopsmart PNG, he wants to upload digital content, too, such as Tok Pisin lessons and bilum-weaving tutorials. He has also developed GoFeedMe, a free shopping platform for food in PNG. The basic plan allows vendors to access sales
reports, data analytics and tools to reach more customers.

ODESH fleet. Credit: ODESH

ODESH, the first Papua New Guinean online ride-hailing service, is another recent innovation, now connecting taxis ad chauffers in Port Moresby with customers in real time.

Small-scale farmers, meanwhile, are benefiting from the EDidiman digital market platform developed by Bougainvillean Jordan Becks. It provides a consumer price index that allows farmers to track prices of cash crops, so they may be able to achieve best value for their product.

AgriKonnekt, another agri-tech startup, is being trialled in Central Province before it rolls out to the rest of the country. The platform provides a logistical arm, connecting farmers with transport to carry their produce. ‘We want to sign up SME trucks [for the trial] that are already servicing routes going into Kairuku,’ says AgriKonnekt’s Chief Technical Officer, Victor Tekwie.

Agbook, based in East New Britain, is offering a different kind of help to farmers: financial literacy programs. ‘This will help them transition from subsistence gardening to running a small, profitable business,’ says owner Nicole Isifu. Training is facilitated through workshops and self-paced videos.

Agbook will also be assisting PNG Agriculture Company in rolling out AgUnity, a blockchain-based app that allows farmers to make and receive payments through scanning QR codes, exchange information with buyers, and get a higher share of the profit.

The article ‘PNG: Getting Connected’ was first published in the December/January 2022 edition of PNG Now, Papua New Guinea’s leading lifestyle magazine.

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Desmond Yaninen is President of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Council, as well as the founder of financial services firm, Pacifund. He passionately believes in the potential for Papua New Guinea to grow its economy and raise living standards by creating successful small businesses.

The MSME Council’s Des Yaninen. Credit: Godfreeman Kaptigau

BAPNG: How did you get from working for someone else to working for yourself?

Des Yaninen: I spent about 13 years working for the National Development Bank and, while I was there, I saw an unmet need. Every year, the bank would receive millions in loan applications, but only a third could be funded.

I established my own financial services company, Pacifund (there are 11 employees now), to address the problem of access to finance. And, in particular, not debt funding but equity funding. So, getting SMEs to pitch their businesses in a way that will encourage investors to come in and invest.

BAPNG: Has your original vision for the business changed over time?

Des Yaninen: The original vision was to set up a crowd fund platform for the entire Pacific region. We have partners in Solomon Islands and Fiji who are ready to go. This unfortunately hasn’t gotten off the ground in PNG yet due to the restrictions with the central bank and the Securities Commission.

‘My Youth SME Program is about telling young people that they don’t need to go to uni and get a job to be successful. I want them to think about being employers and not employees.’

BAPNG:  PNG has plenty of financial institutions but financial advisory services are not so common, especially for SMEs. Why? What do you think the potential is for this sector?

Des Yaninen: Financial advisory services are not stand-alone businesses here in PNG. They are mostly offered as a service from local accounting firms – and there are hundreds of these tier 2 and 3 firms around who do this, apart from the tier 1 Deloittes, PwCs and KPMGs. Business Link Pacific is an online platform funded by the New Zealand government where many local accounting and financial services firms register and are able to provide these services to our people at a subsidised rate.

Why is promoting SMEs so important to you?

Des Yaninen: The job market in PNG is limited. There are only ever about 500,000 jobs in the formal sector, and looking at our population, there are only enough jobs for 10 per cent of our adult population at any one time. So, you have around 90 per cent of our population still looking for jobs, no matter how qualified you are. So, we need to change the conversation and really get people to start looking at business.

What projects are you working on now?

Des Yaninen: Less than 20 per cent of school leavers each year will have opportunities; 80 per cent coming out (of school) will automatically be labelled as failures because they didn’t get any (job) offers. So, you have a lot of smart kids that are missing out. This burden put on young people creates an atmosphere of negativity, which in turn breeds failure. We’re calling them failures for something that is not their fault—we don’t have enough space for all these young people, so we have to do something about it.

‘The biggest challenge is the mindset of our entrepreneurs.’

So, my Youth SME Program is about telling young people that they don’t need to go to uni and get a job to be successful. I want them to think about being employers and not employees.

What are some of the common misconceptions that SME owners have?

Des Yaninen: The most common misconception is that anyone can apply for a loan without putting up any security or equity. Once small business owners find out that they have to put something up, many are deterred and never proceed.

If you could wave a magic wand to make business conditions better for SMEs in PNG, what would you do?

Des Yaninen: The biggest challenge is the mindset of our entrepreneurs. If you think something is too difficult, then that’s what it becomes. The opposite is true. There is immense opportunity in our country, and those who have persisted and soldiered on regardless of the limitations and barriers have become immensely successful. If I had a magic wand to wave, I would grant everyone an iron will to succeed despite all odds.

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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of e-commerce in Papua New Guinea and around the world – and more is yet to come.

Tapioca Delight’s staff is receiving top qualifications in the industry. Tapica Delight is the first SME in PNG to accept online debit and credit card payments. Credit: Tapioca Delight

Papua New Guinea’s move towards online banking and e-commerce is accelerating, in part because of the effect of the COVID-19 crisis. Business and banking initiatives are also intensifying. According to the Bank of Papua New Guinea’s December 2020 Quarterly Economic Bulletin, the pandemic has pushed consumers towards online options, boosting the overall market. Retail sales increased by 3.1 per cent in 2020, compared to a decline of 0.5 per cent in 2019, ‘mainly attributed to higher online spending.’

The banks are acting quickly to provide internet options in an effort to expand their market in PNG’s chronically under-banked population. They also have an eye on reducing the capital costs associated with running physical outlets, something that is notoriously expensive because of the country’s difficult geography.

Kina Bank offers retail mobile banking and personal online banking. The bank has established an Internet Payment Gateway (IPG) service that allows customers to use ATM cards for online payments, which is more cost-effective and allows all of the bank’s customers to pay for goods and services online. Users will get an SMS message or a WhatsApp message to securely validate their transactions.

Bank South Pacific has launched its BSP Pay service. The bank says it has 200,000 debit cards in circulation but over 1.8 million bank accounts; the move is designed to entice those extra 1.6 million customers to use an online payment system instead of going into the physical bank. It is expected that mobile payments will become the customers’ preferred purchase option.

BSP offers full-service personal internet banking and is moving into providing online commerce services. In 2020 Tapioca Delight, a bakery and catering company, became the first SME in PNG to accept online credit and debit card payments through Bank South Pacific’s online payment gateway.

Elsewhere, progress is patchy. Moniplus provides its products (personal loans, asset finance, term deposits and foreign exchange) online. But the rollout of online services has a long way to go with many of PNG’s 13 licensed financial institutions, 16 savings and loans societies (SLS) and over 70 small community-based non-government organisations.

Online retail

On the other side of the ledger, online retailing has surged, helped by the pandemic. Many of the international online shopping options were already available, such as amazon.com, alibaba.com and ebay.com. But more PNG options are springing up as the market matures.

Bzzmart is a PNG-based online market that sells food, consumer products, electronics, auto and motorcycles. The company claims to undertake quality control on the products before it offers them to customers.

Another online market place that launched recently in PNG with a very local focus is Jungle. Like Bzzmart, the company claims that it checks all vendors on its site, and that only businesses registered with the Investment Promotion Authority are permitted to have a storefront. The site has 18 different product categories and uses Kina Bank’s online payment platform.

The most established online player in PNG is Fortuna Online, which offers supermarket products, beverages, computers, clothing, pharmaceuticals, furniture, vehicles and spare parts. The site uses credit cards or mobile phone payments.

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Hard work is paying off for Yaku Ninich, one of Papua New Guinea’s top fashion designers.

The fashion label PNG Fashion International is sold globally. Credit: Oliver Percovich

US fashion designer Vera Wang once famously said: ‘I want people to see the dress but focus
on the woman.’ Well, focusing on this particular woman is not hard to do when she is attired in her
colourful and stunning designs.

Yaku Ninich is a Papua New Guinean fashion designer best known for her label, PNG Fashion International (PNGFI). Her designs appear on everything from clothes and bags to comforters and bedding sets.

Now based in North Carolina in the US, Ninich has risen to her career heights through sheer hard work and resilience. ‘I have always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me,’ she says. ‘I see rainbows in one small idea – that is how my brain works.

‘I never saw being a dropout in grade 10 as a failure or a burden to restrict me from being great or being the best in what I want to do.’

Ninich juggles a full-time job at Toshiba-America and runs PNGFI in the evenings and weekends.
As if that’s not enough, the entrepreneur and mother of three is doing part-time studies towards an MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To say her designs are bold is an understatement. Influenced by her PNG roots, they feature Papua New Guinean flora such as hibiscus, frangipani, and the bird of paradise.

An ode to her Oro heritage (she is from both Morobe and Oro provinces), many of her designs
are also influenced by the traditional tapa design.

‘I see lots of imitations in the PNG marketplace but as designers we have to continue to innovate our ideas and continue to come up with new designs and styles to be ahead of our competition.’

‘I started drawing tapa designs and bird of paradise to bring me closer to home,’ she says. ‘I did some research on print-on demand companies and I did some blanket and scarf designs for my personal use.’

Inspiration & hard work

Yaku Ninich

Ninich was inspired to design her own apparel while employed by the US department store Macy’s, where she worked as a sales associate and later as a sales manager. She says working at
the store gave her the ideas and confidence to design handbags, clothing, and accessories.

She started making things for herself, but then started selling them in 2015. Ninich regularly commutes from the US to PNG. She says PNG customers make up 60 per cent of her business.

‘Right now, I concentrate on selling my products through Glow Boutique in Port Moresby and Kenny Collection in Lae. I see lots of imitations in the PNG marketplace but as designers we have to continue to innovate our ideas and continue to come up with new designs and styles to be ahead of our competition.’

‘PNG does not have a fashion industry yet. Just because we have a few fashion shows every year, does not make it an industry.’

Ninich believes that while PNG does not currently have a fully functioning fashion industry, there
is nowhere else to go but up.

‘PNG does not have a fashion industry yet. Just because we have a few fashion shows every year, does not make it an industry,’ she says.

‘What happens after the fashion show? Do designers continue to grow their brand? How do they do that? Are they able to continue selling their designer clothes? Are they able to fulfil customers’
orders?

‘PNG does not have full-function manufacturing, distribution, marketing, retailing and
advertising arms for the fashion industry,’ she says.

‘I applaud designers who continue to showcase their own work and host their own shows – that is brand exposure. It is expensive but you have to spend money to make money.’

PNG designers and artists should be ready to make clothes and accessories to meet their customers’ expectations and demand.

‘On the other side of the coin, retailers like Jack’s, Papindo and RH should have their buyers scouting what is new out there and should be ready to invest in buying clothes and accessories from PNG designers and artists. These retailers have the industry power to buy PNG made first to
support local creativity.’

These days Ninich is as busy as ever. She is rebranding, expanding her wholesale business, selling
online on PNGFI’s social media platforms and dressing Miss Pacific Islands Pageant 2022 contestant, Alibi Writer Collin.

Ninich believes in setbacks being setups and there being no substitute to hard-work. ‘My setback can one day be a setup for something greater because I allowed God to take the lead. I am always proud to tell my story of how this village girl went from being a high school dropout to working for one of the top Fortune 500 companies in the US,’ she says.

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Ultimax Security’s Collin Kopyoto shares his journey from graphic designer to security company CEO, and how an emphasis on professional service and local knowledge helped set his business apart in Papua New Guinea.

Ultimax Security Services’ Collin Kopyoto. Credit: BAI/Stefan Daniljchenko

For anyone looking to work or invest in PNG, security is a crucial component of doing business. Ongoing law and order issues have resulted in a booming private security sector, estimated in a 2021 report to be PNG’s third-largest employer.

While by no means the largest player, Port Moresby-based Ultimax Security Services has become an industry leader, recognised at the PNG SME Awards in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Established in 2014, Ultimax now employs over 300 people, recently expanding to Lae, with plans to add Mt Hagen and Wabag in the future.

Humble beginnings

Having studied graphic design in Canberra, founder Collin Kopyoto initially hoped to build a multimedia company on his return to PNG. When that failed, he returned to the work that had supported him through university.

‘I realised that I could do something with security because, while I was studying and working at the same time, I learned some good things – how to [deliver] work in time, how to be professional. So, I thought, why not create my own employment?’

As well as supporting himself, Kopyoto also sought to build pathways for his first batch of staff, many of whom did not see security as a viable career.

‘In PNG, we see security as one of the [lowest] jobs on the ladder,’ Kopyoto says. ‘So I had to change their mindset, show them that security is an honourable job.’

Culture

Kopyoto says this early focus on professional service helped Ultimax stand out from its larger competitors.

‘I wanted to be different, with some of the things I learned when I was working in Canberra,’ he says. ‘With many of the local firms, I realised that their presentation and dress codes weren’t to standard – so those were the little things I had to capitalise on.’

Developing a reputation for professionalism opened other doors too — Kopyoto credits early clients Kumul Consolidated Holdings and the Mineral Resources Development Company with growing Ultimax’s profile. More recently, that reputation has led to finance support from Credit Corporation, which provided a pleasant surprise for the formerly cash-strapped SME.

‘Instead of me going after the finance, they did their own assessment and approached me,’ says Kopyoto.

Kopyoto rates overcoming negative perceptions about security services as one of the biggest challenges in running Ultimax.

‘It’s [about having] a good team that believe in your dream, and how you try to make that dream everyone’s, and get them aligned with what you believe in.’

‘Ultimax is one tribe, it’s our tribe,’ he says. ‘We have each other’s back. And the things that we value in a tribe, I try to add some of them into our little tribe, something common that all of my team can share.’

Getting ready

Kopyoto is optimistic about PNG’s economic outlook, although he notes the need for local companies to be ready; Ultimax has recently gained a number of ISO certifications.

‘Hearing about all the mining and things that are happening – I don’t want to just maintain: I have to pull up my socks and meet the requirements, train my team and get ready.’

Watch Collin’s interview on our Youtube Channel:

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GoFood PNG started its food delivery service in 2016 with a single car and a website. After explosive growth during the COVID-19 emergency, Chairman Anurag Borkar says it is now preparing to expand services to new markets, including Lae and Mount Hagen.

GoFood PNG Chairman, Anurag Borkar. Credit: BAI/Godfreeman Kaptigau

In its early days, Go Food PNG began delivering meals for just a handful of Port Moresby restaurants, according to Chairman Anurag Borkar.

GoFood’s mobile app was launched in 2021. Credit: GoFood PNG

“The restaurants didn’t realise there was a business model where they get to make additional income,” Borkar told the recent Innovation PNG 2023 conference in Port Moresby. “Instead of people coming to the restaurant, they’re now able to order from their homes, which was absolutely a new concept for them.”

GoFood now has partnerships with more than 40 restaurants in Port Moresby and also provides deliveries for about 10 catering companies and three supermarkets. In 2023, it added a business-to-business delivery service called GoTransport.

Revenue boost

Initially, GoFood’s restaurant partners made an additional K50,000 from deliveries. Total additional revenue for restaurant partners has increased from K400,000 in 2017 to K750,000 in 2022, and Borkar said the figure for 2023 should reach about K1 million.

“There are plenty of opportunities within this business to grow in PNG,” Borkar said. “As internet penetration increases, we feel that businesses like ours will always thrive.”

The food-delivery business is supported by a mobile app that launched in 2021 and is now used by about 20,000 customers, as well as backend operations that provides customer service and fulfils orders.

“We were compelled to start the app because of COVID,” Borkar said. “COVID was one of the things that really helped our business, because everything was under lockdown and people needed food or groceries to be delivered to their doorsteps.

“It was a sad situation, but we had an opportunity to really take our business to the next level.”

Demographic shift

GoFood PNG’s Operations Manager Vavine Anang accepts the 2023 Innovation PNG Award for small business from chair of judges, Dr Jane Thomason and Business Advantage International’s Andrew Wilkins. Credit: BAI/Godfreeman Kaptigau

Borkar said GoFood’s growth also underscores the rise of Port Moresby’s middle-class, and the willingness of younger Papua New Guineans to embrace new technology. About 68 per cent of its customers are aged between 25 and 45, and 75 per cent are PNG locals.

“We see more and more young Papua New Guineans getting used to our service and ordering from us,” he said.

Borkar said GoFood PNG has recorded compound aggregate growth of 31 per cent over the last 6 years, compared with an estimate of about 18% for similar services globally between 2022 to and 2030, which highlights the potential for further growth, Borkar said.

The company’s ability to execute on its growth plan was recognised late last year when GoFood PNG took out the Small Business title at the 2023 Innovation PNG Awards, with judges praising its ability to adapt common service features to specific PNG market conditions.

What’s next?

GoFood PNG plans to expand operations to Lae early this year and to Mount Hagen around the middle of the year.

“There are plenty of opportunities within this business to grow in PNG,” Borkar said. “As internet penetration increases, we feel that businesses like ours will always thrive.”

Borkar said the business-to-business delivery service will be a key driver for growth in coming years, but GoFood PNG is also considering adding a ride-sharing platform and farm-to-table fresh-food concept.

“What excites us is that we are providing job opportunities for drivers, for delivery crew, for back-office operations, for call centers, and most of our team are young Papua New Guineans, so it gives us an opportunity to train them and create an exciting and energetic culture in the company,” Borkar said.

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