ANZ Fiji Country Head, Saud Minam

Challenges created by COVID-19 has inspired many Fijians to become entrepreneurs, as they have been thinking ‘outside the box’ to generate income.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji says creativity, resilience and entrepreneurship during this economic crisis is a sign of people becoming job creators.

ANZ Bank Country Head Saud Minam says Fijians are becoming innovative and capitalizing on their skills to earn money.

“A gentleman who used to deliver small groceries at different places, bring his own vegetables and all those stuff and supply it to the banks or to the businesses. He is setting up a website and he is going into the app as well. That is a combination of digital and if there one thing that COVID-19 has taught us is being digital. Second is how you can take advantage of this sort of environment. He was able to capture the bigger market, he gets the order upfront and he packs it and then delivers it.”

Minam says small businesses are an integral part of the economy.

“You can sit there and say that there is no job but when you start thinking of how you can actually put these people into different jobs to earn money. Here I like to say that the support in the last budget there was some amount allocated in terms of upskilling people and all that. I think people should take advantage of that.”

The RBF is confident many of businesses created during the pandemic will remain, even after the economy recovers with people developing and sharpening their business skills.