It’s all about financial literacy, for the Reserve Bank of Fiji as it launched its 2018 student diary at Marist Brothers High School.

RBF deputy governor Esala Masitabua said yesterday: “The student diary which we are launching this morning is part of the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s financial inclusion work.

“Under this broad agenda we have a raft of initiatives that the bank implements or supports to promote financial literacy. This is the eighth edition of our student diary.

“There are a total of 5000 copies which the Ministry of Education will be distributing to 37 secondary schools around Fiji.

“Again we are thankful to the Ministry of Education for their invaluable assistance.

He said they hoped the diaries would be useful and that it would complement the financial education development.

“Embedded in the diary are tools for learning good habits of managing your money which we hope will inculcate good habits and help you to make good financial decisions as you grow in life,”he said.

“Besides enhancing your financial literacy, this year’s diary revolves around the theme ‘The Climate is changing, we must change too’.”

“We in the Pacific are all too familiar with this phenomenon. Climate change and the discourse on the global stage teach us so many life lessons.

“The Reserve Bank and Fiji’s financial sector are also in support of this cause and are committed towards greening Fiji’s financial sector.

“Recent RBF initiatives around this include joining the Sustainable Banking Network, committing to develop and promote sustainable business models that support communities’ response to climate change under the Maya Declaration and issuing sovereign Green Bonds – a world first for an emerging market.

“I also encourage you to use the financial pages in the diary to record your daily expenses as it will help you develop the habit of tracking and assessing your financial decisions to better plan for a sustainable future.

“I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the continued commitment of all the teachers to your personal development.”

The Deputy Secretary, primary and secondary Timoci Bure said: “Being in the forefront of COP23, and all these talks of climate change, we need to go deeper into it.

“The Reserve Bank and Fiji’s financial sector are also in support of this cause and are committed towards greening Fiji’s financial sector,” said Mr Bure.

School principal Ben Salacakau said: “One thing is that the diary is aimed at is to remind the students on climate change, and it is something very important.

“As all of them have a bank account and we would like them to think about saving and to teach them job creation as an extension of financial literacy towards and a job.

“The discussion on COP23 needs to be picked up and this diary is going to help the students to pick up the discussion,” he added.

Fiji continues to make numerous efforts to address climate change including having introduced a “Green Growth Framework” to guide the nation in building a sustainable future.

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