Shania Shayal Prasad 
Students and people living in Fiji will now be able to send money to their families in Vanuatu directly and digitally through cross-border remittances.
This has been made possible through Vodafone, which has developed an additional feature for outward remittances in their M-PAiSA app that is currently available for Vanuatu users.
Head of Vodafone e-Commerce and Digital Financial Services Shailendra Prasad says they noted that many money-sending companies see Pacific island countries as too challenging due to their volume.
He says this enabled them to create a feature that will be easy and convenient for users in the Pacific region.
The new inclusion will reduce the cost of remittances by 40 to 50 percent.
“Because they don’t get economies of scale to be able to connect directly as bilaterals between islands, and because of the cost and the many approvals that they need to go through.”
Prasad says each user is limited to sending less than $2,000 annually.
He also highlighted that they will not compromise with any regulatory or other requirements set by the Reserve Bank of Fiji in this regard.
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