Microfinance Focus, September 14, 2011: According to Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme 34% of the 150,000 targeted unbanked people have acquired access to basic financial services in the past one year.

In November of 2009, the National Financial Inclusion Taskforce (NFIT) set a vision of reaching 150,000 of the unbanked population by 2014. NFIT is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of Fiji and Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme.

PFIP in collaboration with the Taskforce have set up a number of projects in Fiji  including mobile money projects with Vodafone’s MPAiSA and Digicel Mobile Money Fiji, FinEd Fiji project, seeking to introduce financial education into both the primary and secondary school curriculum and saving the Department of Social Welfare $FJ280,000 annually, through a partnership with the DSW and Westpac to transfer social welfare clients from a voucher based system to electronic payment.

PFIP is a Pacific-wide programme helping provide sustainable financial services to low income households. It is funded by the Australian Agency for International Development, UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and operates from the UNDP Pacific Centre.