Fiji Development Bank : International recognition for human capital development

21 April 2011

ADFIAP, the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific yesterday (20/04) awarded FDB’s Money $mart™ programme as one of two winners of the Human Capital Development Category.

The other is the Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency’s Organisational Empowerment Plan. Money $mart™ competed against 57 projects entered by 28 countries for this particular category.

The award was presented during the 34th ADFIAP annual meeting which, is being held in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus from 20-23 April, 2011.

The recognition is part of ADFIAP’s annual Outstanding Development Project Awards which honours ADFIAP members who have undertaken and/or assisted projects that have created a development impact in their respective countries. The awards are given to members, which in the judgment of the ADFIAP Awards Board, have implemented or enhanced outstanding and innovative development projects during the immediate past year.

“Money $mart™ is an innovative financial literacy programme which has since it started in 2007, benefitted more than 64,000 children going through third form since then,” said FDB chief executive officer, Deve Toganivalu in his acceptance speech.

“This year, the Bank has taken that a step further by funding the expansion of this form three Commercial Studies programme into form four for all secondary schools as Invest $mart™.

“These two programmes will not only set the foundations for a sound financial future for our children, but it will also teach our children about entrepreneurship and the importance of sound financial planning.

“I am very proud of the ADFIAP Award and given the level of competition in this particular category, I know for certain that we have a programme that is not only innovative but sustainable inthe long term.”

Working collaboratively with the Ministry of Education, the Bankhas since 2007, spent close to $250,000 developing Money $mart™, training teachers, funding free text books for students and running the annual awards system for the top schools in four categories that return the highest moderated marks for the year.

Money $mart™ introduces the basics of financial literacy at Form 3. The main activities contained in the curriculum include Goal Setting, Creating a Budget and a Savings Plan and Saving Money, the last part being a practical measure of how well students grasped the basic theory relevant to budget and planning.

Invest $mart™, introduced to fourth formers in 2011, further develops the fundamentals of Money $mart™ by teaching students to investigate investment opportunities available in local institutions, design and investment plan and show evidence of investment of the savings accumulated over the two years.

The FDB is one of 30 founding members of ADFIAP, which started in 1976. It is the focal point of all development banks and other financial institutions engaged in the financing of development in the Asia-Pacific region whose mission is to advance sustainable development through its members. ADFIAP now boasts a membership of 126 organisations from 44 countries.

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