Welcome to the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s Public Awareness column. Over the next few weeks a series of articles on financial inclusion will be published. The Reserve Bank of Fiji is co-hosting the annual Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum in September. This is the first time a country in the Pacific is hosting this landmark event for financial inclusion policy makers
Good data in the financial inclusion space is not always easy to obtain in the initial stages of any work we wish to do in this area. However, with the increasing interest in financial inclusion at a global level, policymakers are recognising that data provides an essential foundation for evidence-based decision making. Reliable data enables policymakers to accurately diagnose the state of financial inclusion, identify barriers, craft effective policies, set relevant targets, monitor and assess the impact of financial inclusion efforts in the country.
2014 saw the completion of Fiji’s first medium term strategy for financial inclusion that was set in 2010. The first strategy highlighted some important lessons, one is that data is a critical element in the financial inclusion agenda and that there is a need to fill the existing data gaps on both the usage and the perception of the general public on the various financial products and services available to them.