The Minister for Economy and Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has signed an agreement with Vodafone and the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this agreement is part of the overall holistic approach to supporting micro, small and medium enterprises.

He says this will in turn give MSME’s the ability to market and sell their products online via Vodafone’s VitiKart platform.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds that the agreement will see Vodafone’s VitiKart provide a more sustainable alternative for MSME’s to advertise and sell their products online.

“Government obviously saw this as an opportunity together with the Reserve Bank, we are providing funding so for the next two years, any business that lists will be paying their monthly fee of $49 a month.”

The Economy Minister says businesses enlisting to VitiKart will also be able to expand their customer base to buyers overseas.

“A Fijian loving in the UK, Australia or New Zealand or West Coast of North America, who wants to for example send flowers to their mother or spouse, or wants to send a cake. They should be able to then pay the money online to the local cake shop or local florist and they would deliver that particular product to the intended recipient. So this opens up a whole new lot of opportunities.”

With more people switching to shopping online, stakeholders believe this will quickly give MSME’s more opportunities to grow their business.

Vodafone says there are 25 live merchants who load their products on Vitikart, and currently there are 15 merchants who Vodafone are in the process of signing up to the online platform.

To date, $1.8m worth of transactions has gone through VitiKart.