More women are registered as mobile money users than men in the country, reveals data in the Financial Inclusion Annual Report for 2022 released by the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
The report states 84 per cent of Fijians had a bank account out of which 89.7 were males and 78.1 were females.
According to the report about 65.7 per cent of Fijians were mobile money users, out if which 67.8 per cent were females and 63.7 per cent were males.
The report states 4.4 per cent of Fijians were receiving remittances on their mobile phones, out of which 4.8 per cent were females and 4 per cent were males.
It showed that 39.5 per cent of Fijians were registered and using internet banking – 41.1 per cent of male were using internet banking and 38 per cent females were internet banking users.
70.4 per cent of Fijians had superannuation with males representing 78.8 per cent and female’s 61.8 per cent.
“Fiji has been a pioneer in championing financial inclusion over the past decade with a number of significant milestones achieved including most notably per cent of adults owning a bank account, from around 60.0 per cent in 2014 to 84.0 per cent in 2021,” said RBF governor Ariff Ali.
“Supply-side data also revealed a gender gap of 11.6 percentage points for banked adults in 2021.
“Narrowing this gap is a major focus under our new NFIS (National Financial Inclusion Strategy) together through maintaining access and increasing usage of formal financial services and products.
“The strategy also recognises that there are some informal mechanisms in place that provide some services to those living in the rural areas, women and micro businesses that the formal sector is unable to fulfill.
“These include informal savings clubs, informal lending services and village fundraising efforts, to name a few. Capturing these services and inclusion of relevant data will provide a clearer picture of the level of financial inclusion in Fiji.”
