WORK has started on the implementation of the newly enacted Access to Business Funding Act, with its Small Offers regime likely to hit the market soon.
The Act, passed in Parliament in March and designed to expand capital raising options for Fiji’s Micro, Small and Medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), is being implemented by the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF).
RBF’s chief manager Financial System Development Group Caroline Waqabaca told this newspaper the implementation of the Act will include the finalisation of the regulations that will be attached to the Act.
“That will need to go for Ministerial approval and also the second part of it is establishing the intermediary platform.”
The Act prescribes three avenues through which MSMEs can access finance, Ms Waqabaca said, and with the Small Offers regime being the simplest and not requiring an intermediary, will be the first to get the green light.
“The other two platforms are the Equity Crowdfunding and the Peer-to-Peer Lending.
“The Small Offers regime is going to come out first and then followed by the other two lending platforms because we need to find a firm that acts as the intermediary on the platform to match the borrower.”
Ms Waqabaca said a number of local firms have shown interest in providing the intermediary service but options will be explored both locally and internationally.
“We are currently exploring options for that (intermediary platform). It’s good to know that there are interests from local firms but we’ll have to go through that phase (exploring options) before we move on to the Expression of Interest, tendering process, procurement, etc.
“That is the phase that we’re expecting to go into soon. The other part of this implementation phase is just creating awareness.
“We’re currently working on sharing information so that MSMEs are aware of this reform and how it can benefit them…the processes, what do they have to do, steps that they have to take, where do they have to go.
“So that will be part of the awareness and some capacity building for relevant players.
“That’s going to happen over the next few months but what we can share now is that the Small Offers one will come out first because it’s pretty straight forward and easy,” Ms Waqabaca said.
Capital raising via the Small Offers regime would require “just the basic information package that has the critical information about the transaction between the investor and the borrower or the business that is borrowing from the platform”.
“That (information package) will need to be approved by the Reserve Bank of Fiji.”
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated July 12, 2025
