Promoting financial literacy a must

KATHMANDU:

Central bank governor has urged financial institutions to work towards enhancing financial literacy of the youth as part of their social responsibility in creating better manpower and responsible clientèle for themselves.

“Though it is an individual institution’s choice whether they want to sponsor a football team or a music album, investing in enhancing financial literacy of youngsters will in time turn out to be beneficial for the institutions themselves,” pointed out Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)’s governor Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada, during the celebration of the Global Money Week, here, today.

“If today’s youth learn about financial system early on, they can become useful human resource for the financial institutions,” he said, adding that financial literate population will also mean a steady flow of depositors and responsible borrowers.

“Financial literacy should not only focus on banking knowledge, rather youths need to be taught about securities market and insurance as well,” Dr Khatiwada added.

NRB, in association with a host of non-government organisations, is celebrating Global Money Week 2014 to promote financial inclusion and literacy of youths. The event that takes place in the second week of March is being celebrated from March 10 to 17 this year.

According to Children and Youth Finance International, among 2.2 billion children and youth in the world, only one per cent has access to formal financial channels. The initiative aims at bringing 100 million children into the financial net.

With a large rural population, financial literacy is in a sorry state in Nepal. To promote financial education, the Ministry of Education has already prepared a pilot project to introduce financial literacy in the school curriculum.

“Students in grades VI, VII and VIII will be taught a separate topic called ‘Profession, Business and Technology’ to familiarise them with real world jobs and options available, and more specific financial literacy courses will be introduced for higher classes,” pointed out under secretary at the ministry of education Dr Rojnath Pande.

“Introducing financial literacy in the courses is in line with our ministry’s plan to assist National Planning Commission to create able manpower that will contribute in improving Nepal’s status from least developed to a developing country,” he added.

In order to promote financial literacy among children and youth, NRB has been undertaking interaction programmes in schools and colleges. At present, NRB’s ‘Access to Financial Services’ project has launched financial literacy campaign through publication of books and broadcasting infomercial programmes on radio and television. Today, NRB released a music album and a booklet targeting a young audience and readers to promote financial knowledge.

Source: THT