Fiji was recently announced as the joint winner along with Mongolia for the Asia & Pacific region during the 2016 Global Inclusion Awards. This Award was given by Child Youth & Finance International (CYFI) to Fiji to recognise its efforts in promoting financial literacy amongst youth and children. Winners of this year’s Global Inclusion Awards were...

Reserve Bank of Fiji governor Barry Whiteside.  Today, we will cover financial education in Fiji and how it contributes to financial inclusion. The Reserve Bank of Fiji co-hosted the annual Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum last week. What students are learning from Financial Education FIRST introduced only to a select number of “champion schools” in 2011,...

Welcome to the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s Public Awareness column. This article continues the series of articles on financial education in Fiji and how it contributes to financial inclusion. EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Paul Caginivalu, a Year 3 student at Assemblies of God Primary School in Nasinu, started collecting his savings in money boxes while in kindergarten. Two years...

  Welcome to the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s Public Awareness column. This article continues the series of articles on financial education in Fiji and how it contributes to financial inclusion. THE reality for rural students at a boarding school such as Namosi Secondary School in the interior of Viti Levu is very different from their urban peers....

FOR school teacher Sosiceni Nawaqaliva, teaching iTaukei secondary school students about personal money management hits close to home. As the Head of Commerce at Nasikawa Vision College in Korolevu, Nawaqaliva is reminded of his own upbringing in Lautoka and the lessons he learned from his mother about the value of money, when he is teaching...

LEARNING about business in Year 9 sparked something in Ruci Lauvanua, now a Year 12 student at Adi Cakobau School in Sawani. A hands-on project in Commercial Studies class focused on setting up a business through the selling of Chinese lollies to fellow students. “We learned how to budget, how to calculate the value of...

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Adi Cakobau School student Veronica Tawake means business. What started as a means to pay for her cheerleading uniform has blossomed into a thriving little business for the Year 11 Pure Science student from Tailevu. What’s more, Veronica is managing to save and bank a chunk of the proceeds she makes from selling homemade...

IN an affluent urban school such as Yat Sen Secondary School, students Tegumailagi Toganivalu and Ca Kie Zhong are the exception, not the rule. Many of their peers come from families with businesses and are given substantial amounts of pocket money. Not so for these two. Tegumailagi and Ca Kie have been helping out at...

Welcome to the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s Public Awareness column. This week we continue our series of articles on financial education in Fiji and how it contributes to financial inclusion. SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Abishek Shivam, a Year 11 student at All Saints Secondary School in Labasa, sees Financial Education as a way out of poverty. Since his parents divorced some years ago,...

Who will be there to help, when you’re not?… Sitting in her living room with family portraits of her late husband behind her, Seleima Veisamasama is the picture of a calm and confident woman despite the turmoil that she has experienced over the past year, and particularly in the last few months since the passing...