The Fiji National Provident Fund will open its membership to children as young as 6 years old from Monday.
The Minor Voluntary Scheme allows children to earn compounded interest on their savings; enabling them to accumulate and grow these at a faster rate with zero fees and no taxes.
FNPF’s Chief Executive Officer Jaoji Koroi says the decision to extend membership to children is part of the Fund’s plan to extend its social security agenda to allow Fijians who are excluded from the compulsory savings scheme to also save for retirement, especially the younger generation.
He says FNPF was established for workers, but now they can encourage the young to start saving for retirement much earlier.
The age eligibility for membership into the Voluntary Scheme has been reduced from 16 years to 6 years and allows Fiji Citizens up to 54 years old to sign up for this scheme.
Koroi says anyone who is not employed by a registered employer can also join as a voluntary member adding this means that market vendors, taxi drivers, domestic workers, farmers, operators of Small and Medium Enterprises as well as students are potential voluntary members.
He says any minor or member, below the age of 18, will need to be registered by a parent or guardian; who also assumes the role as Administrator of the account until the minor turns 18 years.
The fee required to open a new Voluntary Membership account is $10 and the minimum monthly contribution payment is also $10.
The maximum deposit allowed for a financial year is $200,000 with any transaction over $10,000 to be reported to the Fiji Intelligence Unit to prevent any intention of money laundering.
