As per Fiji Financial Services Sector Assessment, Fiji like other Pacific Island countries is minuscule to build a big competitive microfinance industry. Though there are certain legal and regulatory hurdles to microfinance and need for improving and building the supporting infrastructure, one of the biggest problems is the lack of suitable products and retail institutions for delivering it. Also, traditional NGO microfinance groups are weak in Fiji.
Even though there are certain problems but still the market is large enough to sustain one or two full service regulated microfinance institutions. A greenfield microfinance could be a possibility but it will turn out to be expensive.
Also certain weaknesses in Fiji microfinance institutions have been noted:
Lack of regulatory and supervisory support for most microfinance, particularly cooperatives
Little interest from the formal financial sector towards peri-urban and rural banking
Lack of appropriate products and services
Weak microfinance support institutions
Lack of accurate data and knowledge-sharing among organizations
It seems it will take considerable time to develop a strong and competitive microfinance industry in Fiji.
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