Females, here in Fiji and in other developing countries, have been found to be well below males in as far as having bank accounts.

This was revealed by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Barry Whiteside and the Head of Communications for the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Peter W Foster.

“We are keen to close the gap on gender as far as financial literacy is goes,” Mr Whiteside said.

Mr Whiteside that a survey conducted in Fiji, only 52 percent of women have bank accounts whereas a survey conducted for makes found 68 percent had it.

“There is a gap and we want to concentrate on how we can give financial services to women.”

He said the Global Policy Forum, which will be opened today by the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama will have a special session on gender finance.

“At the end of the forum there will be an announcement of a Denarau Action Plan.

“This plan will be targeted by the global community on gender finance.”

He said this plan will be used by all 81 countries attending the forum to take back to their countries in an effort to get women to become more financially secured.

Mr Whiteside said Fiji’s 16 per cent gap was much higher compared to the average figure of nine per cent for all other developing countries attending the forum.

“We need to know why this is happening here in Fiji,” he added.

“We want to find out whether it may be the husband that has a bank account and the wife has none or something else but we need to find out why.”

edited by farzana nisha

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