SecZim creates a financially savvy generation
THE Securities Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim) aims to increase its efforts to develop a generation that is financially literate and knowledgeable about money matters during this year’s Global Money Week running from March 18 to 24.
Global Money Week, running under the banner Protect your money, secure your future this year, is an annual global campaign aimed at raising awareness and promoting financial education among young people.
Its primary objective is to equip young individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills to make informed financial decisions and develop financial competence from an early age.
“What we are expecting is to create a financially literate generation. A generation that understands money, both in terms of savings and the progression to investment,” investor education director Farai Mpofu told NewsDay Business during a SecZim exhibition at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Sports Club on Tuesday.
Mpofu explained: “The reason for making concerted efforts to focus on this category of young people is the recognition that financial literacy is not as high as it should be.
“Responsible approaches to savings and investment are not at the level that they should be globally and therefore the view was that if there is focus every year on efforts such as these, it’s then possible for children’s literacy, along with children’s financial literacy alongside the usual literacy is also enhanced.
“So, as you can see, as you soak in this exhibition, it’s populated by young people who are just getting snippets of what the financial markets are composed of.”
SecZim has partnered the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, as well as Higher and Tertiary Education, to conduct financial literacy campaigns throughout the country, targeting young learners.
The initiative involves four committees including the RBZ, the Insurance and Pensions Commission, SecZim and Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
Mpofu said they had developed a toolkit which, in its simple form, will help learners and teachers to unpack financial capital.
The toolkit is available in English, Shona and Ndebele as well as in print, audio and video formats.
“We have come up with this toolkit as an effort to simplify the capital market, especially for use by teachers and community resource people,” she noted.
“We are trying to really simplify the capital market so that at the youngest level, each person understands what it means and what role they can play, how they can participate and how they can create wealth for themselves and for the nation. The main content is this investment 101 which is a complete guide to the capital markets in Zimbabwe, written by Zimbabweans for Zimbabwe.”
According to Mpofu, the regulator has received approval from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to conduct financial literacy and capital market awareness outreach programmes in schools across the country as it aims to educate the public about the capital market.
Last week, SecZim conducted a training in part of Masvingo, which saw an attendance of over 500 learners.