MORE than $7.3 billion was moved via digital wallets in Fiji last year alone, with QR code payments registering strong growths, indicating the country’s financial ecosystem making a massive shift towards a ‘cashless’ economy.
As of December last year, the five licensed payment service providers (PSPs) – which offer QR (quick response) code payments and digital wallet services in Fiji – processed 116.4 million wallet transactions, all worth $7.3b in total.
This is equivalent to an average of $612m wallet transactions a month, the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) revealed in a statement.
QR code payments, it said grew strongly, reaching $672.3m by the end of last year.
“Inwards remittances from mobile money totalling $742.3m, contributed to the notable growth in digital wallet and QR code payments during the period, mainly from Australia, the United States (of America), New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and Canada,” the central bank said.
As of last December, a total of 957,816 people were registered e-money users, of which 722,340 (75.4 per cent) were active users.
RBF governor Ariff Ali said the way consumers made payments was changing quickly in today’s fast-moving world.
He said with smartphones prevalent across Fiji, QR code payments were also fast becoming popular as the new normal.
“They offer a fast, secure and convenient way to pay, eliminating the need for physical cards or cash,” Mr Ali said.
He said this was particularly valuable in regions with high smartphone penetration but limited access to traditional banking infrastructure.
The five licensed PSPs offering digital wallet services in Fiji are Digital Financial Services Pte Limited (M-PAiSA), Digicel (Fiji) Pte Limited (MyCash), Sole Limited (Solé), Abacus Fintech Pte Limited (WeChat), and Dynamic Payment Limited (China UnionPay and WeChat).
Mr Ali said the central bank was now working on a single, standardised QR code that worked on all payment apps – a move that’ll mean businesses no longer needing several QR codes displayed on the counter for different service providers; customers not facing payment failure due to incompatible codes, and payments will become faster and more reliable.
“A standardised QR code will support businesses, make customers’ lives easier and help strengthen Fiji’s growing digital economy.”
At the Pacific Fast Payments Systems workshop, facilitated by the World Bank and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) in December last year, Mr Ali had said that while mobile wallets had been in Fiji since 2010, person-to-person transfers had skyrocketed since 2020, and estimated 50 million transactions totalling $3b in 2025.
Similarly, he added payments via QR code, bank-to-wallet, and wallet-to-bank transfers had surged; while inward remittances via mobile networks now accounted for almost half of the $1.3b in annual inflows.
