Why Aren’t Mobiles Being Used To Remit Funds in Fiji?

In the next nine months, the RBF and National Financial Inclusion Taskforce will be working on the development of a new Financial Inclusion Strategy.
LITIA MATHEWSELL
NADI
This was announced by RBF Governor Barry Whiteside at the opening of the two-day 12th Pacific Islands Working Group yesterday.
He said the Bank and Taskforce would be taking stock of all financial inclusion initiatives undertaken in the country to date, for this strategy, which will run from 2015-2020.
Prior to the announcement, Mr Whiteside urged participants to work towards a National Demand Survey in their respective countries.
This is part of efforts to determine factors behind the low uptake of certain financial products and services, such as mobile financial services.
Mr Whiteside also suggested a financial inclusion monitoring framework- based on international standards- that would look at access, usage and quality indicators.
“Financial access points are just the building blocks,’’ he said.
“What is important is getting our people to understand and use these financial products and services.
“For example, even though remitting funds through mobile phones is perhaps the cheapest of the channels, we still see other alternative expensive mediums being used.”
Also the use of Poverty Index as a tool.
Feedback: litiam@fijisun.com.fj