In a bid to ensure young iTaukei landowners benefit, the Fiji National Provident Fund is in discussions with the iTaukei Land Trust Board to invest lease monies in FNPF.
FNPF member services general manager Alipate Waqairawai said the discussions were carried out at the board level with the TLTB.
“We had some discussions with TLTB concerning those accounts and to see if they could be moved to us. However, TLTB is restrained by certain contracts that they have,” Mr Waqairawai said.
He said discussions were ongoing where the board members were reminded that one of the benefits of investing in FNPF was the interest they have been paying out.
“It would be in the interest of the individual to put that money in FNPF because of our interest.
“The discussions are still ongoing and I think our team is going to pursue it further.”
He said current arrangements with lease payments were done with landowning units and their members.
“There are some landowning units that are actually doing that with us directly. When they receive their lease monies, they come to us with the allocated shares of their members and they open accounts for them.”
FNPF chief executive officer Viliame Vodonaivalu said amendments made to the FNPF Act allowed the Fund to have the discussions.
“Previously, we were limited by our Act but now that our Act has been amended the only question left for us is the marketing of the product directly to the landowners,” he said.