DigitALL: Digital payments helping women entrepreneurs reach new customers in Fiji
This year, the United Nations Observance theme for International Women’s Day, DigitALL, recognizes and celebrates advances in gender equality through transformative technology and digital education. BPP supports businesses to innovate and apply technology to achieve social impact, including through cutting-edge software and fintech applications, digital education and digitized farming processes. This week, to celebrate International Women’s Day, we are profiling some of these partnerships, whose work to provide digital solutions to pressing problems is improving the lives and livelihoods of women and girls across Asia and the Pacific.
In Fiji, a BPP partnership is working to develop a cashless payment system that meets the unique needs of women small business owners.
With many visitors to Fiji now preferring to pay by smart phone, or credit and debit card, small businesses that cannot accept digital payments have been missing out on sales. A BPP partnership has been working on a solution to this problem, by developing a locally-led payment app, named ‘Dua,’ that offers business owners an easily accessible, convenient, simple and secure way to accept these payments, and is designed to meet the needs of women business owners in Fiji.
The new technology is currently being piloted by a handful of market vendors, including Bliss Fiji and Marama Niu (pictured), who are now actively accepting card and smartphone payments for their products – including candles, lip sticks, ice creams and coconut products!
Training and onboarding sessions for the pilot were held in late-2022, and generated a lot of excitement among participants, who developed a high level of confidence in the use of the app. The participating entrepreneurs also forged strong relationships, creating a network of supportive Dua Pay merchants who will drive the success of the partnership. The pilot is expected to widen to over 400 women entrepreneurs in the next 2 years.
“Empowering women entrepreneurs with digital financial tools can open the door to new customers, new business opportunities, and greater financial independence,” says Craig Kirkland, Director, Pacific Islands, Mastercard.
“Already, Dua Pay is helping the women in the pilot attract more customers, particularly tourists who are accustomed to cashless payments back home.”
Digital wallet and payment acceptance platform for women-led micro and small businesses is a BPP partnership with Fintech Pacific, ygap, Mastercard and the Australian Government to develop and deliver an innovative payments solution for women-led micro and small businesses in Fiji.
Learn more here: https://thebpp.com.au/partnership/digital-wallet-and-payment-platform-for-women-led-micro-and-small-businesses-in-fiji/
