Good evening distinguished guests and members of the fintech community.
On behalf of Digital Financial Services Pte Ltd, it is with immense pride and gratitude that I accept the PayTech of the Year Award.
To be recognised among Asia’s fintech industry stalwarts is a tremendous honour. As a company from a small Pacific Island nation, this award demonstrates that innovation is not defined by the size of the market, but rather by the impact it has on people’s lives.
Tonight, I would like to begin by thanking our customers foremost. This award belongs to every person who chose to trust M-PAiSA that made this journey possible.
I also want to acknowledge and thank our dedicated team – past and present. Your passion, resilience, and commitment to innovation has transformed a bold vision into a platform that now serves hundreds of thousands of Fijians every day.
To our business partners, merchants, agents and technology providers and all others thank you for believing in our vision and helping us build a thriving digital payments ecosystem.
We also acknowledge the Reserve Bank of Fiji and the wider regulatory community. Progressive regulation and collaboration have played a critical role in enabling innovation while maintaining trust and security within the financial system.
Also express our deepest appreciation to the United Nations Capital Development Fund who helped de-risk the project in its formative years.
When we began this journey, our ambition was simple yet powerful: to ensure that every Fijian, regardless of where they lived, could access convenient, affordable, and secure financial services.
From its humble beginnings, M-PAiSA has grown to become Fiji’s leading eWallet platform, providing thousands of Fijians every day with access to digital financial services that was once a distant dream.
What makes us most proud is not the technology itself. It is the impact.
It is the rural farmer or the fisherman across the seas who can accept digital payments instantly without needing a traditional banking relationship.
It is the woman entrepreneur who now has greater control over her finances to grow her business.
It is the family member overseas who can send money home to loved ones in seconds from over 94 countries.
This is the true meaning of financial inclusion.
Over the years, we have remained committed to innovation and to pushing the boundaries of what is possible. We persevered, we tried and we tried until we got it right.
We are proud to have introduced many industry firsts, including becoming Fiji’s first non-bank entity to integrate M-PAISA Mastercard and the global Schemes Cards network.
We are equally proud to have introduced Fiji’s first Tap Phone to Pay solution, enabling merchants to accept NFC payments using nothing more than a smartphone. We have built the largest network of QR merchant payment network.
Whilst doing all that, we continue to invest heavily in trust, security, and resilience achieving both PCI DSS and ISO 27001 certifications reflecting our commitment to protecting customer information and maintaining the highest standards of security and operational excellence.
As we celebrate tonight, we recognise that this award is not the destination. It is a reminder that innovation must continue.
There are still communities to serve, barriers to remove, and opportunities to create. We remain committed to building solutions that empower people, strengthen businesses, promote inclusion, and contribute to economic growth across Fiji and the Pacific.
This award may have our name, but it belongs to the people of Fiji. To everyone back home who have been part of this journey, thank you and as our national anthem rings loud and proud, For Fiji, Ever Fiji.
God bless Thank you.
PayTech of the Year Award. Picture: SUPPLIED.
M-PAiSA Logo
Shailendra Prasad general manager Digital Financial Services Pte Ltd with the PayTech of the Year Award attained at the Asia FinTech Awards 2026 held
in Singapore. Pictures: SUPPLIED
