I have been in the State Owned Entities (SOE) since 2010 or 2011 either as Board Member or as the chairman. This has been ongoing for the last say 10 years and has been totally service without pay or

Raj Sharma, chief executive officer of the Sugar Cane Growers Fund

At times, you witness certain individuals who rise above the mass of humanity and put all their effort into lifting the lives of ordinary people. Without having to rely on these very people to financially support the work they do with allowances.

One such individual is Raj Sharma, chief executive officer of the Sugar Cane Growers Fund.

As if there was enough on his plate with this job, which means looking after around 12,000 cane farmers loans and different assistances, Mr Sharma has selflessly taken on the roles as chairman of three Government entities.

These are as chairman of Fiji Rice Limited, Copra Millers Fiji Limited and Food Processors Fiji Limited. He serves on other boards as well but he does it with a difference – he has refused to use allowances which comes with these appointments, an amount which has amassed over a period of time to around $100,000 to date.

He does it from his heart because he believes in Fiji and believes in lifting the lives of ordinary Fijians who are reliant on these industries for their livelihood.

Below are excerpts of an interview with Mr Sharma Where were you born and please describe your family.

I was born in Labasa (Labasa Hospital) and come from sugarcane and rice farming family background from Vuniyalayala in Labasa. My father was a farmer and mum in change of domestic chores. Both parents are deceased.

I had an elder sister who got married and also passed away about four years ago.

I am married, have two children, both of whom are working and my wife who looks after the home affairs.

Life though was smooth but I realised the struggles were there as my dad would get monthly groceries from town on credit basis and pay the shop owner once cane payment were made. So once debt fully settled the same cycle started again.

Describe life growing up on a cane farm.

From the early 70’s to 90’s I worked on farms, starting from the age of six doing, hoeing, applying fertilisers and during harvesting of cane would be the waterman or ”paniwala” and would get paid about $2 per day. That I would do in the weekends. You have to supply water to the cane cutters. From the age of 10 years or so I starting ploughing the land and that included preparation of cane land or even rice land.

Rice planting would be done during the eight weeks’ school holidays and mostly our primary (class 8) school mates would be engaged in planting with other labourers.

Daily rate was $2.50 plus two meals. We really enjoyed the job.

We could also harvest cane and during end of crushing, would go around assisting other farmers in harvesting and if I can recall the rate then was $6 per tonne.

I started primary school at Vunicuicui Sanatan Dharam Primary then I attended secondary school at Sangam SKM College (at that time Sangam High School)

I got enrolled with USP extension in 1988 while working and continued until 2000 (bit of a lengthy period). I graduated with a Degree in 2002, Post Graduate Diploma in 2003 and Masters in Banking in 2013 from USP.

You have had an extensive career with the banking industry - describe the lessons learnt and knowledge gained which would become useful later on in your career.

I was a banker at National Bank of Fiji 1986 to 1996, Sugar Cane Growers Fund 1997 to June 2001, Westpac July 2001 to December 2002, and Housing Authority December 2002 to February 2005 and moved to HFC in February 2005 till August 2018. I joined Sugar Cane Growers Fund in September 2018.

I am versed in loans, risk management, governance, project management, sales, problem loan, failure of the banks with experience of NBF (Good Bank and Bad Bank concept), and reasons for failures and how to set up a bank.

I had the privilege to head the HFC transformation into a bank so when you talk about process and policies’, ATMs, cards, cash management, balance sheet management, capital test I have done that with ideas and concept but with total input of experts of the area.

I guess my studies also assisted. I cherished the long hours and late night. This also included putting new ICT system.

I guess it was total cooperation and support of the HFC Board and Management and staff.

Government, in particularly Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Minister for Economy Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum were behind the setting up again of a local bank. the

Describe briefly the banking industry then as compared to now.

The service expectations are huge and whilst the technology is there it also comes with various risks. We need to be mindful various inherent risks as in the banking we are dealing with depositors funds.

New laws and regulations and how it is managed is important. The cost of doing business is also high.

Like any other industry, human capital and value of people is another thing.

In the 80s and 90s it would have been autocratic leadership and to be a successful you need adopt participatory leadership or Servant Leadership models.

I am also proud to see that some of the bankers and or colleagues that I worked with have progressed very well in overseas and even here.

They still have that respect for me which is highly appreciated and even though we have parted ways for a long time now they still call me Boss, which should not be the case. One of my working colleagues as banker has completed his Phd.

Please describe your career so far as head of the Sugar Cane Growers Fund and what achievements have you put in place for the cane farmers of Fiji?

In the last 18 months or so, more housekeeping, tidy up the books in terms of Balance Sheet, new policies, analysis review of the organization structures, rewards and performance management, collective agreement with union, repositioning with marketing and awareness, new products and services.

Being in touch with growers and some of them even call at late nights. Every grower who has loan account with us has access to me and I am there to listen to them and help them.

We are rolling out the new ICT system which had been delayed by three months due to COVID 19 as the supplier, who is from India was affected. We continue to improve on the strategies and plans; I must thank first my past Chairman, Governor Ariff

Ali, the Board, the current Chairman, Uday Sen and the board, the sugar industry stakeholders and Permanent Secretary Yogesh Karan and his team for all the support and guidance.

I have very good team at SCGF, who are looking forward to the change.

I believe you have also been tasked with being chairman to a few statutory organisations - please elaborate on these three entities.

I have been in the State Owned Entities (SOE) since 2010 or 2011 either as Board Member or as the chairman. This has been ongoing for the last say 10 years and has been totally service without pay or allowance. I am chairman of three of the Government statutory authorities: Fiji Rice Limited, Copra Millers Fiji Limited, Food Processors Fiji Limited and these companies are in the progress of transformation.

I am also a board member of the Sugar of Research Institute of Fiji, past chairman of Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF), which under my chairmanship transformed from FIMSA to MSAF.

I am also an independent Audit Board Member on FNPF Board, a member of the Management Committee of Fiji Institute of Bankers. I have worked for various Fijian Government and or institutional working committees or task forces.

All these are challenging jobs and must maintain the accountability and responsibility.

You get satisfactions for the progress but it requires lot of time and commitment.

I normally give my seven days to doing this.

I also serve on a charitable trustFiji Education for Needy Children and contribute the best way I can.

What are the major changes that have been brought in to these three organisations - briefly describe where these industries were before you took over and to where it is now? Also what are these organisations’ biggest obstacles to success?

Well some of them had making losses and or were deemed to be closed, we have revived them but they are agro based and do come with lot of challenges. We have balance the social part with commercial objective too.

What are your plans to place these industries as a major contributor to the country’s GDP in the future?

They should all be one of the economic drivers in terms of either export and reduce import and or improve food security to be top five of the earning collectively.