Friday, 07 October 2022 -- PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. or BNI is committed to supporting the development of a green and export-oriented economy through social forestry packaged in the Jejak Kopi Ekuator Program.
Moreover, the Government through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) is keen to develop green economy and finance by creating a Social Forestry Program.
Social Forestry is an agrarian reform program for justice access for people living around forest areas supported by economic equity programs to provide economic benefits with the principles of sustainable forest management.
This program is aimed at empowering communities around the forest so that they are lifted out of poverty and economic equality while maintaining forest sustainability. The activity is also part of encouraging national financial inclusion for communities in the forest area.
In this program, BNI's role is as a Financial Institution, playing a role in overseeing financial inclusion including capital financing (sustainable finance) to farmers of Forest Village Community Institution (FVCI).
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry presented 15 potential business points for social forestry development to BNI with coffee as the thematic commodity, one of which is in Garut Regency.
The initiation program from BNI is in the form of financial services for forest farmers, especially coffee commodities through ecosystems from upstream to downstream. BNI also provides easy access to capital, agency for forest farmer groups and aggregators, coffee certification, export-oriented business matching through the Xpora program.
As an initial stage of commitment to support, BNI is showcasing the ecosystem that has been formed between Farmers - Small Aggregator (KTH Griya Bukit Jaya) - Offtaker (Sunda Hejo). Director General of Social Forestry and Environmental Partnership (PSKL) Bambang Supriyanto also visited the coffee plantation on the BNI Jejak Kopi Khatulistiwa Program land of Griya Bukit Jaya Forest Farmer Group in Garut Regency, Friday (07/10/2022).
BNI Institutional Banking Director Sis Apik Wijayanto explained that BNI is committed to preserving forests and empowering the economy of communities around the forest with the Jejak Kopi Khatulistiwa Program.
BNI Jejak Kopi Khatulistiwa Program is the company's effort to realize an export-oriented green economy with steps and stages of education, curation, incubation, business matching and the use of BNI transaction solutions.
"Education is provided through online webinars, or offline during socialization to Forest Village Community Institution (FVCI) to provide information on People's Business Credit (KUR) and BNI's MSME journey mentoring," said Sis Apik.
Sis Apik explained that the next stage is curation to see the type of coffee and its market share. Incubation is carried out to further see whether coffee farmers can upgrade the class. Business matching is done to meet with large offtakers or connect with e-marketplaces.
"Our hope is that coffee farmers will use BNI financial transactions through the digital payment channel (BNI Cash Management). We will also continue to encourage fostered MSMEs (coffee farmers) to be able to take advantage of the global market through the utilization of BNI branch office network at home and overseas. Thus, MSMEs have added value and support the implementation of the green economy and Go Global (export)," he said.