By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
FINANCIAL service providers have a duty to provide financial education to customers in an effort to ensure that they make informed decisions to plan and secure their future. Financial institutions play a vital role in driving the financial literacy agenda, says Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Officer, Herman Kasekende.
Mr Kesekende has`won First Place in the ‘Exceptional Leadership in Financial Literacy Award’ category for his efforts in promoting financial education, particularly amongst Zambian youths. He emphasised that it was the duty for bankers, as good citizens that they disseminated financial education to the public, at scale, digitally.
“It is also incumbent on us as financial institutions to provide this education so that people can make informed decisions to plan and secure their futures,” he said when accepting his reward in Lusaka recently from the Bank of Zambia Governor during the 2021 Financial Literacy Awards. Commenting on the award, Mr Kasekende said “Financial Literacy is like any other type of education. It is not an event; it is actually a process.
That is why it is important that people look out for information that is available on different platforms and sources, especially our youths and women.” He highlighted that there was still a lot of opportunity for the financial institutions to use digital platforms to share information throughout the year on their services in order to reach more people. “We live in times where there are now even more opportunities to educate our youths on the basics of money management and investments. This can be done more efficiently through widely used digital platforms such as Facebook and other virtual meeting channels. “Given the times in which we are, where we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to make this information more accessible,” Mr Kasekende said. Standard Chartered Bank has held various financial literacy sessions throughout 2021, mainly via social media and virtual video conference platforms since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Standard Chartered Bank’s Wealth Management team also actively participates in such financial education sessions through client webinars on financial wellbeing in general and for women in particular.
