Fiji's Reserve Bank has a National Financial Inclusion Strategy that they are working through until 2030. Within that strategy, children and youths have been identified as part of our underserved population when it comes to access to Digital Financial Services. When I first walked into RBF for pre-consultations, I walked in with just a newly registered business and an idea about how I could help bring our children and youths into the digital economy. What I did not anticipate was that just a few months later, I would have a designated space once a week in our Central Bank's building, and access to the regulators themselves, while I work on what was once just an idea.
I'm writing this from inside the RBF's first ever Innovation Activator, and I want to share what I am learning as I build Fiji's first ever regulated digital financial service built specifically for our children and youths.
Velo's flagship product is its Family Card Programme, otherwise known as the Velo Kaji — which translates to "little" or "small" in Vosa Vaka Viti. It is a prepaid card for children aged 6 to 17, and sitting alongside this card is an app where children have actual oversight of their money - where they are able to learn to save, budget and spend responsibly. But this solution goes beyond the pre-paid card; within the app, we have embedded a gamified version of the financial literacy curriculum that was put together by Reserve Bank's National Financial Inclusion Taskforce. Aside from the gamification piece, we are working on translating the curriculum into Fiji's two other main languages - Vosa Vaka Viti and Fiji-Hindi, because we want to make sure that all our kids have access to this tool.
Why have I decided to create something that speaks to a generation that has not even entered the workforce? It's pretty simple to me. When we talk about creating access for the underserved and the underbanked, we often automatically think of the adults in informal or rural areas. Steps are always being taken to educate the adults, the MSMEs - while completely glossing over the incoming generation. I believe that if we can build good and practical financial habits and tools for our kids, these habits will naturally follow them into adulthood. We are creating a generation that is already well-equipped and participating in our fast growing digital economy. They are no longer an afterthought.
This is my journey through the Activator Programme to the Sandbox, and the roads that are leading Velo on its mission to uplift a whole generation and possibly change the trajectory of a nation. Follow me for more :)
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