FJS is excited to announce its membership with Nexia International, a global network of independent accounting and consulting firms. This strategic partnership enhances FJS’s ability to provide high-quality professional services to our clients worldwide and reinforces our position as a trusted Advisor and Auditor in the Maldives.
Nexia International, with a presence in over 270 member firms in over 125 countries, is renowned for its commitment to excellence and collaboration. By joining Nexia, FJS gains access to a global network of professionals, enabling us to tap into diverse expertise and resources to better serve our clients’ evolving needs.
“We are thrilled to become a member firm of Nexia, a global leader in professional services. This partnership brings several possibilities, including access to Nexia’s global expertise, and helps us to connect globally and stay ahead of industry trends.” said Fareeha Shareef, Managing Partner. “Furthermore, with Maldives being a world class tourism destination and a strong advocate for environmental protection and sustainable development, we are looking forward to leveraging our expertise with other members especially in the frontier of ESG. This is a significant step towards achieving our business goals, and we could not be more excited about what the future holds for us.”
As a member firm of Nexia International, FJS will have access to knowledge-sharing initiatives, conferences, and events, fostering continuous learning and professional growth. The exchange of best practices within the network will further empower FJS to deliver tailored solutions and sustainable outcomes for our clients. For more information on Nexia, visit www.nexia.com.
FJS is a leading audit and consultancy firm based in the Maldives, that works
towards providing the right solutions to our clients including international development partners, government institutions, public and private corporations and small businesses. Established in 2007, FJS provides a wide range of services from socio-economic research, policy consulting and development planning, to management and accounting and auditing services. For more information on FJS, visit www.fjs.mv.
Entrepreneurship driven by innovation in technology and new market strategies can help the tourism, agriculture, and fisheries industries in the Maldives adapt to climate change. Entrepreneurs can devise and deploy market-driven solutions that enable people engaged in these sectors to adapt to the adverse impacts of a rapidly changing climate and to exploit the resulting emerging opportunities.
As the lowest-lying country in the world at just an average elevation of 1m above sea level, Maldives faces some of the worst impacts of climate change. Maldives has recently ramped up its efforts, with a substantial part of the GDP spent on adaptation and mitigation measures in response to escalating climate change impacts. The prominence of the climate and environment discourse in the Maldives has meant that over the years, communities and companies in the Maldives have implemented a range of measures to ensure environmental protection and promote sustainable development.
The national economic discourse and policy action in the Maldives has been primarily dominated and driven by the large industries of tourism, construction, transportation, telecommunications, and wholesale trade. It has been only in the past decade that the MSME sector has generated national attention and policy action, with legislative and financial support for growing the sector and supporting thousands of MSMEs that provide employment and livelihood opportunities for numerous Maldivians.
The MSME sector is nationally recognized as a critical component in creating a resilient and diverse economy for the country. The most significant impediment to promote and develop MSMEs is their lack of access to finance and the cost of accessing finance. This is exacerbated in the islands where there are limited banking facilities in outer islands. Within this context, it is important for MSMEs to proactively address the challenges posed by climate change impacts. This report examines the context for business in climate change adaptation in the Maldives.
Access the report here.
The Maldives Monetary Authority publishes the findings of the National Financial Inclusion Survey 2022. The survey was commissioned by MMA and undertaken by FJS. It is the first nationally representative demand-side survey on financial inclusion undertaken in the Maldives.
Access the report here
FJS launched the Enterprise Development Program (EDP) Maldives on the 1st of December 2022. This unique program is designed to help selected early stage micro-, small and medium enterprises with innovative eco-friendly market solutions transform into viable growth-oriented businesses. The project is funded by USAID under their five-year Climate Adaptation Project.
FJS and Tetra Tech – the implementing partner of the Climate Adaptation Project funded by USAID, signs a grant agreement on Enterprise Development Programme to support and develop early-stage enterprises in the Maldives.
The purpose of the programme is to help enterprises incorporate, build upon and scale up their Climate Adaptation relevant approaches and innovation. The Enterprise Development Programme is envisaged to comprehensively cover all aspects of business development, as well as help enterprises, develop capacities to further develop their innovation practices into a feasible business product, practice or service that can be scaled up within the organization and/or provided to other enterprises in the sector as a viable product or service. The programme will be targeted towards three key economic sectors – tourism, fisheries, and agriculture.
The programme will encompass developing an awareness and outreach campaign, and an onboarding programme in the North, Central and South of Maldives. Selected enterprises from the onboarding programme will undertake training under the core enterprise development programme. The outreach campaigns are scheduled for November 2022.
FJS will commence fieldwork for National Financial Inclusion Demand-Side survey on 3rd March 2022.
The Survey is commissioned by the Maldives Monetary Authority. The primary objectives of this Survey are to identify gaps and challenges, and to measure financial inclusion in the Maldives in terms of access, usage and quality. It will also help identify the level of financial literacy in the Maldives and assess the status of awareness about financial consumer protection.
The Survey will assess the status of financial inclusion in the Maldives and identify opportunities and challenges to achieve the financial inclusion policy objectives. It will inform policy makers on the status of financial inclusion in the Maldives. The findings will be used to formulate the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
This nation-wide survey will cover 1,500 respondents across 63 islands in 12 Atolls.
To mark the end of a fantastic year, FJS hosted a Year-End Party on the 29th of December 2021. The evening began with a great dinner, which was followed by a variety of games and a staff award ceremony.
Looking back on the year, it has been a challenging year in many ways, showing the team’s strength.
We’re all set for 2022!
We wish you a wonderful, long weekend full with joy.
New Year’s greetings!
We are pleased to announce that FJS is one of the first Registered Public Interest Entity (PIE) Auditors in the Maldives.
The list of Registered PIE Auditors were announced by the President of Maldives Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Maldives (CA Maldives), Auditor General Mr. Hussain Niyazy, in a ceremony held this morning at the Auditor General’s Office.
CA Maldives published the Regulation for Registration of Public Interest Entity Auditors of Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Maldives on 22 November 2021 in an effort to enhance the overall quality and credibility of statutory audits in PIEs. This regulation sets out the criteria and procedures in relation to registration as PIE auditors and quality review arrangements for such audit engagements. The regulation defines a PIE as:
(a) An entity whose shares, stock or debt are quoted or listed on a regulated market; or
(b) An entity that is subject to financial statement audit under the Regulation on the Audit and Accountability of State-owned Enterprises issued by the Auditor General’s Office; or
(c) An entity that regulates financial institutions under the powers granted by legislation; or
(d) An entity that regulates financial or capital markets under the powers granted by legislation; or
(e) An entity regulated by the Maldives Monetary Authority; or
(f) An entity not regulated by the Maldives Monetary Authority that holds assets in a fiduciary capacity for a broad group of outsiders; or
(g) A fund that is regulated by Capital Market Development Authority; or
(h) An entity that is defined by regulation or legislation as a PIE.
We congratulate CA Maldives on achieving this milestone and believe that the regulated approach to the audit of PIEs will promote the overall quality of audit engagements and enhance the public trust in the profession.
“Ask Expert” is a forum where professionals and specialists from a variety of fields share their views, experiences, and respond to questions from participants.
To end this year on a high note, Nattu Adnan, co-founder and CTO of LottieFiles, joined us to discuss on the topic “Organizational Culture.”
Nattu is a Product Designer and Full-Stack Developer with over 20 years of experience developing web applications. He is currently based in Malaysia.
This session undoubtedly provided our team with a wealth of information.
Thank you for the educational session, Mr. Nattu Adnan; we will definitely use it!
