MONEY $MART

Money smart is an Educational programme developed for school children where they are taught the basics of understanding money and simple monetary management skills by inculcating good spending , budgeting and savings habits.

The objective of this programme is to start the child’s financials education early. The Bank believes that if we educate the children on the value of money, the benefits will remain with them for life.

In a partnership between the Ministry of Education and the Fiji Development Bank Money $mart was launched in 2007.  By the end of the year workshops were conducted in various centres of Fiji to assess the success of this program.

The money $mart program had excellent results, because of this the Bank decided to award these schools for their hard work and dedication to this program. The first money $mart awards was held on the 10th of April 2008, with 4 schools being awarded a computer set from the Bank.


SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS

The Small Business Awards commenced in August 2004 to promote Small Micro Enterprise (SME) development through the recognition of successful and innovative entrepreneurs who are making a livelihood and in doing so collectively make a strong contribution to the Fiji economy.

The competition serves as a medium for the FDB to market itself to the people of Fiji and also serves as part of the Banks corporate social responsibility program. The Bank believes that small businesses are the cornerstone of new economic growth and that it has a strong role to play in fostering new business development.

The competition is open to 100% locally owned businesses that have a turnover of up to $100,000 in annual gross sales. The Bank launched the 5th FDB Small Business Awards on Tuesday 14th August 2008 and held the Awards Night on 4th February 2009. The aim of the Awards is to recognize SME’s and its contribution to the economy. The competition usually has 6 major categories, is open to 100% locally owned companies with an annual turnover of $100,000 or below.


FBD SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS 2008. WINNERS PROFILE.

1. The Tourism category was awarded to Meli and Marica Tualau of Malawai Housing Vatualevu, Nadi. This dance group started in Nadi from former Dance theatre Fiji members who saw an opportunity in the growing tourism industry in Nadi and the Western division at large. The group aims to show tourists and other visitors to our shores the true spirit of Fiji and the traditional Fijian culture.

Some of the products the dance group offers are Fijian traditional mekes, yaqona (kava) ceremonies, traditional warrior escorts and many more. The Tualau dance group performs on private booking at resorts and other functions.  The group has won the award for the Vakavotu ni Meke awards in May 2008 from Fiji Arts council as well.

2. The Wholesale/Retail Category was awarded to Varasiko Salatubalevu from Nabouwalu in Bua province in Vanualevu. He is a buyer of dalo and yaqona from farmers in the whole of Bua province and supplies an exporting company in Lami. Varasiko dreams of having his own processing plant one day in Nabouwalu to start his own processing, packaging and exporting.

It’s because of his business many farmers in Nabouwalu and the whole of Bua province are having a regular source of income. His application for the Small Business Awards 2008 was also supported by the Bua provincial council.

3. The Others Category was awarded to Siliva Nasaqa, originally of Naitasiri who has been into flower business for years.  It’s a family business whereby her whole family is involved in running this business. Her husband used to work for the Ministry of Forestry at its Colo-i-Suva station and realized how people spend to buy plants during the arbor week and combining that with Silvia’s hobbies for planting, they both came up with the idea of establishing a commercial nursery. 

Siliva claims she has used materials usually thrown away by others to start her nursery business. Today she plants all types of flowers, palms and ornamentals. This is a husband wife team business and they dream of owning a delivery van one day to cart pot plants to their stall in Garden City Raiwai.

4. The Professional / Services Category was awarded to Sulufaiga Tapaeko who hails from the island of Kio close to Vanua Levu. She operates a hair saloon in R.B. Patel Arcade in Labasa town’s Central Business District. Sulufaiga started her business in October, 2004 on a small scale before receiving assistance from her husband and some later from FDB in Labasa. With this financial injection she managed to expand her business and now employs three staff in her hair saloon on a full time basis. She dreams of further expanding her business and start the first hair dressing school in the Northern Division.


5. The Agriculture Category was awarded to Sanjay Vinod Chand of Saru in Lautoka who had  taken after his father’s cash crop farm after realizing it had potential to earn good income compared to a full time paid employment. With help from his cousin, apart from cash crops he ventured into chicken farming as well.

Today he supplies the Lautoka market with vegetables and sells chicken by the road side to supplement his income. Apart from the skills he acquired from his father on the farm, he has attended ‘Start your own Business’ course with the Ministry of Youth, Business skills training with Micro Finance West and have also completed computer, accounting, Business communications and Management courses from the Training and Productivity Authority of Fiji. Sanjay dreams of further expanding his farm business to a large scale commercial farm.


6. The FDB Small Business Awards 2008 Overall Winner was awarded to Varasiko Salatubalevu of Nabouwalu, Bua. This is a very special category of all as the best of all the winners gets away with a grand prize money.

Varasiko Salatubalevu’s business benefitted her entire province,  considering the challenges of operating a business in an under developed area is not easy. Many aspects of operating a business under these harsh circumstances were taken into consideration before declaring Varasiko Salatubalevu the winner of the FDB Small Business Awards for 2008.