Fiji Development Bank : Address by CEO, Deve Toganivalu on the ocassion of the handover of MONEY $MART

11 May 2011

The Director of CAS and TVET, Mr. Nemanu Drova, the Senior Education Officer, Mrs. Sereseini Betei and team from the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education, colleagues, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen.

It is indeed my pleasure this morning to handover to the Ministry Of Education, these two sets of books:

1. The Money $mart™ and Invest $mart™ Student’s Work Book; and

2. The Invest $mart™ Teacher’s Guide and Assessment Booklet.

In early December last year, the Bank the Ministry signed an extension to the existing Memorandum of Understanding

regarding Money $mart™ and its additional component, Invest $mart™, which comes into effect this year.

Invest $mart™ as you all are aware, will now form the second part of the two year financial literacy programme in all secondary schools throughout Fiji, the first part being Money $mart™, in Form 3. Both are taught as part of the Commercial Studies curriculum in Fiji secondary schools.

What we hand over today are 33,000 Money $mart™ and Invest $mart™ student’s work books. The work book contains the 2nd edition of Money $mart™ and the first edition of Invest $mart™. By merging the two-year programme into one document, saves on cost and allows students in either forms to see what lies ahead the following year or revise work already completed the previous year.

In addition to the student’s work books, we also hand over 200 Teacher’s Guide and Assessment Booklet for Form 4. This will complement the one the guide the teacher’s already have for Money $mart™.

It is my sincerely hope that the Bank’s investment in advancing financial literacy through our education system will continue to yield the expected rewards.

At the end of 2010, accumulated savings reported by the majority of schools for between 2007 and 2010, reached close to the $820,000 mark. This is a huge achievement for the programme.

The annual prize giving for the 2010 Money $mart™ Awards will take place in late May and early June and I along with the schools who have submitted their work for moderation, are probably as eager to know who the winners are for the Urban, Rural, Remote and Very Remote categories.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have here with me also, the award presented by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) to the Money $mart™ programme on the 20th of April. As much as the acknowledgement is of the Bank’s commitment to financial literacy, it is also an acknowledgement of the Ministry of Education, the teachers and the students who have implemented the programme and participated in the process.

Money $mart™ was one of two projects awarded winner for the Human Development Category, at the annual ADFIAP Outstanding Development Projects Award. This was no easy feat. To earn this accolade tells me that we are on the right development path in terms of creating a generation that is not only financially literate but enterprising as well.

On that note, it is with great pleasure that I hand these books over to the Ministry of Education.

Vinaka.

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