Westpac Fiji staged its first Female Founders Market Day for 2026 at the University of the South Pacific’s Laucala campus car park in Suva last Saturday, giving women-led micro, small and medium enterprises a public platform to sell goods, build networks and connect to wider business support. The pop-up market was billed as the latest practical action under Westpac’s Female Founders program, which the bank says is designed to help women entrepreneurs move from informal activity into sustainable businesses.
Stalls at the market featured hand‑crafted ornaments, pandanus‑woven mats and homemade food, while organisers provided on‑site entertainment to draw visitors and create a community atmosphere. Westpac described the event as an opportunity to strengthen networking among female vendors, increase their market exposure and link participants to the program’s broader support pathway — including mentoring, business skills development and potential finance channels tied to the initiative.
Westpac Fiji chief executive Shane Smith said the market day built on the bank’s broader efforts to support women “whether it be academically or in business as entrepreneurs.” “At Westpac, we know too well the crucial economic role women play in our communities,” Smith said, adding that creating physical sales spaces allows women to “showcase their talents and flair and potentially grow their business and customer base too.”
The market day is an early tangible outcome of the Female Founders program launched in July 2025. Westpac says the program was championed by the Reserve Bank of Fiji and supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as part of efforts to honour commitments under the 2024 We‑Fi Code, an international framework aimed at increasing access to funding and business support for women‑led MSMEs. Westpac is a signatory of the We‑Fi Code, and the bank framed Saturday’s market as an extension of that pledge into community engagement.
The event arrives amid a wider push in Fiji to boost women’s economic participation. Previous reporting and government statements have highlighted the potential macroeconomic gains from reducing barriers to women’s full participation in the economy, estimates that have been used to justify policy and private‑sector initiatives to expand financing, training and market access for women entrepreneurs. Westpac’s market day signals the bank’s move beyond financial products into direct facilitation of sales and networks — an approach banks and development partners often cite as necessary to help informal enterprises scale.
Organisers did not release attendance or vendor figures, but the market is presented as part of a continuing calendar of activities under Female Founders for 2026. By combining on‑the‑ground events with the program’s wider support pathway, Westpac and its partners aim to create clearer routes for women MSMEs to formalise, access finance and reach new customers — an outcome advocates say is needed if Fiji is to unlock the full economic potential of its female entrepreneurs.
Leave a comment