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A better understanding of budgeting and financial planning – or financial literacy - is important in the development of sustainable microfinance, says the Reserve Bank of Fiji governor Sada Reddy.
He made the comment while opening the Pacific Microfinance Week in Nadi today.
“Microfinance is critical in reducing poverty,” Reddy told microfinance and financial sector practitioners, experts, policy-makers, academics and regulators in attendance.
He emphasised that microfinance initiatives need to be supported by financial literacy.
“Providing microfinance services only is not sufficient. It needs to be backed up with education and training programmes,” he said.
Financial literacy will be the focus of a one-day workshop session on Wednesday and will be conducted by the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme PFIP, one of the sponsors of the Pacific Microfinance Week.
PFIP is a Pacific-wide programme helping provide sustainable financial services to low income households. It is funded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and operates from the UNDP Pacific Centre.
"One of the key aims of PFIP is to bring financial services to the poor, working with commercial banks, microfinance institutions and others to do so.
“Through the Pacific Microfinance Week we wish to share knowledge on new ways to deliver services to reach the unbanked,” said Tillman Bruett, Pacific Financial Inclusion Advisor.
“Our workshops on financial literacy and microinsurance (on Thursday) will generate a lot of interest amongst financial sector professionals and the general public, given the current global environment in which people are looking for ways to better manage and save money,” Bruett said.
Among other topics for discussion during the week are the role of commercial banks in microfinance as well as the impact and opportunities new technologies can provide for microfinance.
