Under the patronage of Palestine Monetary Authority Signing a memorandum of understanding between Bank of Palestine and Ministry of Labour to provide financing of one million dollars from the Estidama Fund for persons with disabilities

Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, 06-04-2022

Under the patronage of the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), a memorandum of understanding was signed today between Ministry of Labour, represented by His Excellency the Minister Mr. Nasri Abu Jaish, and Bank of Palestine, represented by its General Manager Mr. Mahmoud Shawa, to provide a financing portfolio of one million dollars from the Microfinance Program of Estidama Fund for persons with disabilities, with the participation of the Governor of Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), Dr. Feras Milhem, and the representative of The National Alliance for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Awad Ebayat.

The Governor expressed his sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Labour for its initiative in signing this memorandum of understanding and for its considerable efforts in serving all segments of our people. He also extended his gratitude to the Bank of Palestine for its constant cooperation in achieving access to various segments of society and providing them with banking services. He also thanked The National Alliance for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities for its interest and effort to provide decent jobs for them and work on their inclusion in the society, in addition to solving the issues they face.

The Governor mentioned that dedicating this portfolio from the Estidama Fund for persons with Disabilities is part of the PMA’s efforts to achieve the goals of financial inclusion in Palestine, which is by providing access to banking services for all of society segments, especially for persons with disabilities, protecting their rights as consumers of banking services wherever they are and without any discrimination, and enabling them to appropriately assume their role in the society which helps them in developing their businesses, and create diverse job opportunities that suit their needs, which in general contributes to the process of economic development. He further indicated that 1,114 businesses benefited from the Estidama Fund from the Microfinance Program at zero cost.

The Governor also added that the PMA pays great attention to enabling persons with disabilities to benefit from banking services and products. In 2017, it has issued instructions that include the necessity of adapting banks’ buildings and banking services to the needs of persons with disabilities, in addition to the need to give the client with disability an ATM card/credit card or cheque books upon his request, provide safe deposit boxes that suit their needs, provide Arabic-speaking ATMs with Braille buttons, develop banks’ websites to suit the use of persons with disabilities, and provide SMS service. Banks have also trained their employees in sign language to facilitate communication with people with hearing disabilities, and provided applications of opening accounts in Braille.