THE Unit Trust of Fiji (UTOF) is working with a number of institutions to accommodate investments back home from Fiji’s diaspora.
UTOF chief executive officer Vilash Chand said there are investors in markets which they believe remained untapped.
Noting inward remittances at around $2billion, Mr Chand said they were targeting to at least tap on 10 per cent of that market.
“We see there is a great opportunity for us to tap into that particular market,” Mr Chand said in response to questions from this newspaper.
He said there were several challenges surrounding those transactions, but it was all manageable and most members of the diaspora were keen.
Mr Chand said some had signed up as unit holders but UTOF is not satisfied with the present numbers.
“That’s why we say there’s still room for improvement and we’re working on it,” he said, citing the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific countries as immediate markets.
UTOF board chairwoman Lavinia Kaumaitotoya said the diaspora represented a huge market.
“One of our strategic policies this year is to really drive diaspora marketing,” Ms Kaumaitotoya said.
She noted the launch of their new website as a foundational move, which could allow onboarding the diaspora.
“We’ve been quite busy in other things, but this year, that is one of our key focuses is to target the diaspora.”
Ms Kaumaitotoya said just like financial literacy where it took them a number of years to hold talanoa sessions with villagers, they would have to do the same this year for the diaspora market.
UTOF this year crossed the $600million in total funds under management and this week announced a 3.95cents per unit for its Income Growth Fund and a three per cent return for its Income Fund unit holders.
