Nikhil Aiyush Kumar 
[Photo: FILE]
Market vendors across Fiji could soon benefit from a digital bookkeeping tool designed to help them manage their finances and access business opportunities.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, MSMEs and Communications Manoa Kamikamica highlighted the initiative in Parliament, saying it is among the innovative solutions being developed through the Fiji Innovation Hub.
Kamikamica says the digital tool is aimed at helping market vendors record their daily financial transactions, an important step towards transitioning from informal trading
into the formal economy.
“What the digital bookkeeping tools for market vendors will do, hopefully, Honorable Speaker, is allow our market vendors to start recording their financial activity. And as a first stage to becoming a formal business, we all know that if we provide an easy way for them to start recording, it’s an easy segue from moving into the formal part of the economy.”
Kamikamica says maintaining proper financial records could eventually help vendors approach lending institutions for financing to expand their businesses.
He adds that the Fiji Innovation Hub is supporting nine promising startups through mentorship, technical assistance and business development programmes.
The initiative forms part of broader efforts to encourage digital innovation, strengthen small businesses and create new economic opportunities.
The Fiji Innovation Hub was established in July last year to support local entrepreneurs in developing innovative solutions and growing their businesses.
