Govt to deepen financial inclusion

GOVERNMENT will continue to work towards promoting financial inclusion to ensure every citizen has access to banking.

This was said by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube yesterday in an interview with The Herald Business.

Prof Ncube’s sentiments come as Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating Global Money Week (GMW), which ran from March 25 to 31, an annual Child and Youth Finance awareness initiative built to inspire children and young people to learn about money matters, livelihoods and entrepreneurship.

Prof Ncube said: “Frankly, as a Government we have done very well on the financial inclusion front, we continue to support that objective.

“Look at what has happened just in terms of financial literacy, and the promotion of mobile banking, Ecocash and others, and now we have mobile insurance, for example Ecosure.

“And we want more mobile money players to be involved in mobile insurance to ensure insurance access to farmers.”

Prof Ncube added that Government has come up with regulation around financial inclusion, as a measure of deepening access to financial products in a regulated environment for the safety of consumers.

“Certainly we want to make sure that financial inclusion remains a part of the objective function of Government in terms of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and also Treasury.

“We want to make sure that we continue to deepen the use of electronic money and banking, and so forth. In future we want to invest in products where ordinary citizens can buy shares on the stock market on their phones, we should be able to get there.

“So we fully support this and we will do everything to make sure that we deepen the use of financial services and the broader financial inclusion project,” said Prof Ncube.

GMW started in 2012 and the campaign has touched the lives of 32 million children and youth in 169 countries worldwide.

The objective of the GMW is to ensure that today’s children and youths should become empowered economic citizens, capable of understanding the importance of saving, and equipped with the skills to be employed and create their own livelihoods.

Empowering children and youths is designed to create a positive wave that would expand from themselves, to their families and to entire communities.

The slogan for GMW, which is commemorated every March, is learn, earn, save.

The idea is to teach children and youths to manage money wisely, save for their future and earn for themselves and families.