THE registration of women-owned sole trader businesses saw an unprecedented rise in the past five years, increasing by more than 2000 per cent.
The number increased from just 464 women-registered sole traders in 2020 to over 9000 last year, according to Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran.
Speaking as chief guest during the Fiji Revenue and Customs Services (FRCS) MSME Day celebrations at the FRCS headquarters in Nasese yesterday, Ms Kiran, a renowned and successful social entrepreneur before entering politics in 2022 to contest the national elections, commended FRCS for providing tax and customs awareness and financial literacy trainings to Fiji’s MSMEs, especially women entrepreneurs.
“One encouraging indicator of our progress is the remarkable growth in the number of sole trader business registrations by women over the past five years,” Ms Kiran said.
“In 2020, there were 464 women-registered sole traders. This rose to 851 in 2021, then to 1504 in 2022. In 2023, the number climbed to 2078, and in 2024, we saw an unprecedented jump to 9524.
“As of 1st April 2025, we have already recorded 2617 new registrations by women.
“This consistent upward trend reflects the growing confidence, participation and entrepreneurial drive of Fijian women.”
She said further to this, FRCS data showed that there are currently:
28,570 active registered women taxpayers in the Micro Entrepreneur category who have a turnover of up to $50,000 per year;
3110 women in the Small Entrepreneur category who have a turnover between $50,000 and $300,000 per year; and
357 women operating at the Medium Entrepreneur level who have a turnover between $300,000 and $1.25 million per year.
“These figures highlight the breadth of women’s involvement in the business sector and the potential for further growth through sustained and strategic support,” Ms Kiran said.
“Our women are very resourceful – they are use to managing the economy of their family unit everyday, they contribute to the planning of their community.
“Many women help plan for big events upcoming in their families, communities, they cost items, budget, purchase, manage these events. Planning is something that is part of women’s daily lives.
“Women are used to looking at their skills, use local resources and develop livelihoods and we saw so much innovation during the pandemic where women, many who had lost their jobs, came up with innovative businesses using their existing skills.
“Our women are able to gauge the market and understand the service gaps, but often they sell themselves short.
“Often we see they under-price themselves or give items on loan and get into difficulties with business or don’t make enough profit because often all the costs are not taken into account so these training especially in financial literacy I hope has been of great value,” she added.
Yesterday’s MSME Day celebrations by FRCS coincided with the graduation of 150 MSME operators – most of them women – from various training on tax and customs compliance offered by FRCS.
