Recognising that we needed to have a national strategy, the Reserve Bank of Fiji conducted a national survey on the existing microfinance schemes and the demand for microfinance in 1996 with technical assistance from the UN ESCAP.
Based on the findings of the survey the Reserve Bank proposed to the Government the need for setting up an agency within the Government to drive the microfinance initiative. Around the same time the Reserve Bank, in collaboration with the UNDP, organized a national conference on microfinance. The outcomes of this conference led to the Government setting up a Microfinance Unit in 1999.