Financial literacy is the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual, households and businesses to make informed and effective decisions regarding their financial resources. We find this as an important life-skill in our diverse capacities as students, employees, consumers, savers and investors.
The choice of this year’s theme is based on the fact that we need to jointly work together to build on the gains of the previous years’ financial literacy campaign. It is also expected to develop a new momentum in ensuring a behavioral change of the population, create a common rallying call to mobilize the banking, insurance, pensions and securities sectors interest for the present and future policy benefit. In brief, these will improve the overall outreach for financial services which has remained low over the years.
This theme also provides the opportunity to reinvigorate the financial aspirations of the population especially the target audience i.e. the youth. The messages from the various subsectors are expected to provide practical steps that can make a secured future a reality. These messages will not only raise the awareness of existing tools to leverage an optimized solution to their future financial outcomes, but also to motivate financial consumers to acquire and hold formal and safer assets for their future.
The National financial Literacy week starting today has activities aimed at creating awareness and educating the entire population. During the week’s campaign, experts will be discussing a range of financial issues of interest, various financial products available and draw attention to particular issues. These activities aim at helping all and sundry to make the best financial decisions.
Specifically, the week’s activities will focus on Radio and TV discussions and regional forums in Kumasi, Wa and Ho on Friday 26th September, 2014. On Wednesday, discussions will focus on banking issues especially the importance of savings at youthful age and the securities industry. Similarly, Thursday will be dedicated to issues on Pensions and Insurance subsectors. It is expected that clarity will be provided on new insurance policy guidelines as well as the new pension guidelines to existing clients, highlighting the new opportunities to the informal sector. All these activities will be crowned on Sunday with Talking Point on GTV.