More effort in integrating digital with financial literacy
THE official acceptance of digital money as legal tender, a nationwide acceptance of digital money as a form of payment for goods and services across the board was among the topics discussed at the ‘Better Together: The networked path to financial literacy’ forum hosted by the Consumer Council of Fiji earlier this week.
“One of the major challenges and possibly also an impediment for people wanting to learn about financial literacy, and in particular digital financial literacy, is because the acceptance for digital money for payment is dictated by the merchant,” said Vodafone head of e-commerce and digital financial services Shailendra Prasad, one of the speakers on the panel.
“There is a lack of universal acceptability of digital payment across all the businesses. And whilst cash will always be there until digital money becomes more widely used, one of the reasons why a lot of people still carry cash is because from our policy perspective digital money is not being treated as legal tender,” Mr Prasad added.
Speaking further on the need for financial literacy and digital financial literacy to be approached jointly in the areas of awareness and academia, University of Fiji head of accounting and finance department Sandhiya Roy said while she had seen an increasing number of students grasp basic financial literacy concepts there was still a gap to be filled.
“I think we need more effort in integrating digital literacy with financial literacy.
“While there is gradual progress, we need to form partnerships with other stakeholders in order to integrate digital literacy with financial literacy.”
Vodafone head of e-commerce Mr Prasad suggested financial literacy be delivered to youths through a video game.
“If somebody is able to develop a financial literacy game, we would be happy to host it on our platform for free and make it available to the younger generation,” Mr Prasad suggested.