The Pacific’s digital transformation is entering a more demanding phase. After years of investment in telecommunications and connectivity, the challenge is increasingly to build the trusted digital systems that turn infrastructure into reliable public services. NiuPay is taking its experience with proven digital systems across the Pacific into Fiji, building on its work with Papua New Guinea’s Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority (ICSA), the country’s first digital land-title system and a border-processing system deployed during the Pacific Games. These operational deployments form the foundation for the company’s expanding regional work.
The Papua New Guinea-founded company established a presence in Suva this year, appointing Seta Daulako as Fiji country manager and hiring its first Fiji-based engineer in September. The appointment also marks the company’s first Autonomous AI Systems Engineer, extending its technical capabilities beyond its home market.
NiuPay plans to invest several million Fiji dollars in the country over five years as it expands operations in Suva and Nadi. It expects to grow its Fiji team to between eight and twelve staff over the next 12 months. Chief Operating Officer Trevor Manokore said the company was committing the money upfront to demonstrate its long-term commitment to the market and to supporting customers locally. For a regional technology firm, the investment signals an intention to build capacity in Fiji rather than serve the market remotely from Port Moresby.
These commitments extend beyond a conventional sales operation towards building local engineering capability. Strategic investment from Kina Bank and NiuPay’s status as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Select Tier Services Partner provide further support for its growth. The Fiji operation builds on the company’s existing work in the Pacific and provides a base for extending its digital systems and technical expertise to other markets in the region. Governments across the Pacific face similar pressures to turn connectivity into secure, practical digital services, although each market retains its own laws, institutions and needs.
Proven systems provide foundation for expansion
Connectivity remains essential, but submarine cables and telecommunications networks do not, by themselves, deliver better public services. Governments also need secure applications, interoperable systems, digital identity infrastructure and the technical expertise to manage these platforms over time.
Fiji offers a useful example of the demands facing governments. The country is connected to international telecommunications networks through seven submarine cables and has set a target of bringing most government services online by 2030 under its National Digital Strategy. Plans for national digital identity infrastructure and a new cybersecurity strategy add to the demands on public institutions as more services move online.
The policy question is how to translate those ambitions into systems that are operational, secure and responsive to local needs. That requires more than procuring technology. It also means developing the people, governance arrangements and institutional capabilities needed to maintain systems, manage data and oversee external technology providers.
Designing technology for Pacific conditions
Part of the challenge is a problem the region has faced for decades: technology designed for other markets is often introduced into the Pacific with little adaptation. Systems built for large economies may assume reliable high-speed internet everywhere, widespread card payments, formal street addresses, complete central records and a deep pool of local specialists to maintain them.
When those assumptions fail, the costs emerge later. Agencies may pay licence and support fees in foreign currency, wait for help desks in distant time zones and run manual workarounds alongside systems that do not reflect how services are actually used. Customary land ownership, cash-based household economies, multiple languages and populations spread across remote islands are not exceptions in the Pacific; they are part of the operating environment. Donor-funded projects can compound the problem when systems are delivered to meet a project timeline and lose support after funding ends.
Regional providers argue that they are better placed to bridge this gap. Manokore describes NiuPay’s approach this way: “It’s not a piece of software we built somewhere trying to sell it.” Although NiuPay has teams in Australia and India, Manokore said the company does not build its solutions for the Australian, New Zealand or Asian markets. Instead, it designs its work around how Pacific customers operate, pointing to similarities among Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.
NiuPay’s existing deployments demonstrate how that approach has been applied in practice. Fiji has its own laws, institutions and public expectations, and a provider moving between Pacific markets must design for the new setting rather than simply repeat what worked elsewhere. Building on an established technical track record does not remove the need for local adaptation; it gives the company experience to draw on as it develops systems for different jurisdictions.
From digital land titles to AI-powered immigration
NiuPay’s regional expansion builds on three established deployments. In Papua New Guinea, the company developed the country’s first digital land-title system and the MyICSA Analysis Engine for the Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority. Its traveller-entry system was also used during the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, helping reduce processing times from 43 seconds to 10 seconds for delegations from 24 nations. Together, these deployments demonstrate the company’s experience delivering digital systems for land administration, government immigration processing and border management.
One of the most documented examples is NiuPay’s work with PNG’s Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority. A case study published by Amazon Web Services describes the MyICSA Analysis Engine, built by NiuPay on AWS, as the first known use of generative AI in a live government system in the Pacific Islands. Short-term visas that could take up to two weeks to process are now handled in minutes. According to AWS, about 95% of short-term applications are processed automatically, and the authority can handle up to 1,000 a day. ICSA Chief Migration Officer Wellington Navasivu told AWS that the average processing time for short-term visas had fallen to four minutes.
Two details in the case study speak directly to the wider implementation challenge. First, AWS says the system was built and trained locally for PNG’s needs, contrasting with the imported-model approach the region has long relied on. Second, the system does not make every decision autonomously: it approves a visa automatically only when it is fully certain, while less certain cases go to an immigration officer. Officers can also update the rules without technical help. That design keeps policy decisions with the authority rather than the technology. ICSA plans to extend the system to work permits and passport processing.
The ICSA platform, digital land-title system and Pacific Games border-processing system show how NiuPay’s work has progressed to operational deployment. The examples demonstrate the application of digital technology to public administration, from immigration processing and land records to the management of international arrivals. The ICSA case also illustrates how automation can accelerate administrative processes while leaving decisions requiring human judgement with government officers.
Digital sovereignty requires government oversight
Institutional control is central. As governments adopt digital services, they must consider who controls the underlying systems, how sensitive information is handled, whether platforms can be maintained locally and how dependent agencies become on individual vendors. The ability to retain operational and governance control can be as important as the initial deployment of a technology.
For Fiji and other Pacific economies, partnerships with regional technology providers may create opportunities to develop services that better reflect local administrative environments. But a local presence alone does not guarantee digital sovereignty. Governments still need clear procurement standards, cybersecurity requirements, data-governance rules, technical oversight and arrangements that preserve their ability to change providers or systems when necessary.
Building local skills for regional growth
NiuPay’s regional engagement also extends beyond commercial contracts. The company has participated in the Pacific Fiber Conference in Suva, sponsored NCIT 2026 and entered a three-year partnership with Pacific Women in Telecommunications to provide internships and mentoring opportunities for young women across the region.
Those initiatives address another constraint on digital transformation: the availability of skilled workers. Hiring locally can help build the technical expertise needed to implement and maintain systems, while regional training partnerships may widen access to technology careers. Developing local talent alongside deploying technology can help build the expertise required to maintain digital services over time and reduce reliance on external support.
NiuPay’s expansion is supported by strategic investment from Kina Bank and its relationship with AWS, reflecting how regional capital and global technology infrastructure can help Pacific technology companies grow. Its next phase of regional work will build on this combination of locally developed applications, global cloud infrastructure and growing in-market engineering capability. For governments, the priority remains ensuring that essential technical knowledge, data governance and operational decision-making remain accessible to the institutions and communities they serve.
Taking proven digital capabilities across the Pacific
The implications extend beyond Fiji. Across the Pacific, governments are seeking to convert digital infrastructure into more accessible public services and stronger economic opportunities. NiuPay’s investment in Fiji, local recruitment and technical appointments build on systems already operating in the region, providing a platform for further deployments tailored to individual countries. Extending these capabilities across different jurisdictions will require sustained investment, local partnerships and solutions adapted to each country’s laws, institutions and operating conditions.
NiuPay’s track record in the Pacific includes a live government immigration platform, the country’s first digital land-title system and a border-processing system used during the Pacific Games. These deployments establish a practical foundation for its expansion into Fiji and other regional markets, demonstrating how digital technology can support public administration and improve operational efficiency.
As NiuPay grows its Fiji team and extends its regional presence, it is building on systems already delivered rather than starting from an unproven proposition. Governments will still need sound procurement, cybersecurity and data-governance frameworks, alongside investment in local skills and institutional capacity. With those foundations in place, NiuPay’s existing deployments provide a basis for extending proven digital capabilities across the Pacific.
