FDB Awarded in Asia, Pacific Financing
The Fiji Development Bank (FDB) has been recognised for its role in creating a development impact by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP).
This was during its Outstanding Development Project Awards ceremony at the 40th ADFIAP Annual Meeting in Macao SAR, China. FDB emerged as winner in the financial inclusion category for its submission in the 2017 ADFIAP “Outstanding Development Project Awards” Programme.
It had submitted its entry “Small Start, Big Leap” in category 8: Development Finance-led Poverty Reduction by highlighting a financial inclusion project initiative that used development finance as a tool or instrument to reduce or alleviate poverty in the country.
The plaque of merit was received by board member Inia Naiyaga, and acting chief executive officer Nafitalai Cakacaka, who attended the ADFIAP 40th Annual Meeting in Macao.
“The entry that was submitted highlighted how FDB as …. national development financial institution in the country continued to support Fiji’s largest microfinance institution, the South Pacific Business Development Microfinance (SPBDM),” Mr Cakacaka said.
“In doing so, it continued to uphold its strong commitment toward financing projects that contribute to poverty eradication and economic empowerment,” said acting chief executive officer Nafitalai Cakacaka.
“We are content to see that FDB’s efforts in delivering of financial services at affordable costs to different segments of the society across Fiji is being recognised. “The partnership in 2014 with SPBDM, a leading micro-enterprise development organisation that provides unsecured credit assistance to women micro-entrepreneurs and facilitates capacity-building, supported SPBDM’s capacity to reach out to women micro-entrepreneurs in the rural areas. “Through financing a successful project of this nature, FDB encourages the formation of communitybased business networks in the country such as the microfinance model as a self-improvement system of consistent productivity and accountability and fulfils its developmental obligation toward reducing poverty in the country by providing access to finances for a start-up of small businesses by women and other target groups,” he said.
The FDB had also been awarded by ADFIAP for enabling greater financial inclusion in Fiji in 2013 for its Social Banking Facility (SBF). The purpose of the SBF was to provide cash to alleviate short and long term financial burdens through the implementation of enterprise for alternative livelihoods with the long term view of alleviating poverty.