AFI Policy Manager Eliki Boletawa was a featured speaker at the National Financial Inclusion Workshop: Medium Term Strategy for Financial Inclusion in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on 9-10 August where he delivered a speech that covered the role of the central bank in promoting and coordinating the implementation of financial inclusion. Boletawa also moderated a working group presentation. AFI Network Member Reserve Bank of Vanuatu (RBV) hosted the workshop in collaboration with the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP), AFI and AusAID.

The two-day event provided a platform to gather the views of key stakeholders and identify the challenges they face while providing or receiving financial services, developing a common vision toward achieving greater financial inclusion in the nation, promoting greater involvement of the private sector, and creating a medium term national strategy for developing microfinance and greater financial inclusion and empowerment in Vanuatu.

The workshop agreed on three main groups of key actions and that the RBV should take the lead role in most cases. Those actions include: the establishment of a financial inclusion task force to monitor and evaluate financial inclusion progress, and the establishment of a working group within the task force to focus on financial literacy; the conduction of a survey on financial access and demand for financial services to determine a financial competency level, baseline and products for women and youth, and demand for micro-insurance; and a review of legislation and regulation to strengthen client protection, empowerment and market conduct in relation to the use and delivery of financial services.