SUVA — Mobile money payments have increased in Fiji in the first 10 months of 2021, Fiji’s central bank said.
According to Fijivillage news website on Wednesday, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) Ariff Ali said mobile money payments increased from around 100 million Fijian dollars (around 46.7 million U.S. dollars) in 2016 to more than 700 million Fijian dollars (around 327.4 million U.S. dollars) in the first 10 months of 2021.
Ali said the public’s confidence in mobile money wallets has improved significantly and this was reflected in customers’ depositing over 130 million Fijian dollars (around 60.8 million U.S. dollars) in their mobile wallets so far this year, compared with 10 million Fijian dollars (around 4.6 million U.S. dollars) annually two years ago.
Ali said internet banking recorded an almost three-fold increase in the number of transactions in the past five years to transactions valued at 1.6 billion Fijians dollars (about 748 million U.S. dollars).
Personal remittances have been Fiji’s largest foreign exchange earner for 2020 and 2021 given the impact of COVID-19 on tourism in the island nation, according to the RBF.
Ali said personal remittances have grown strongly, reaching a new record last year and was on track for another record high this year.
He said cash withdrawals in Fiji through ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) were on a steady rise over the past decade, growing to approximately 3.2 billion Fijian dollars (around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018 but have been on a downward trend recently.
