Pictured: The Governor and the Permanent Secretary at the Financial Literacy Week Launch.
Bankers Association Of Zambia Chairperson Mr. Kola Adeleke – Welcome Remarks, Delivered By The Baz Deputy Chairperson, Mr. James Koni During The Official Launch Of The 2018 Financial Literacy Week, At The Mulungushi International Conference Centre
Monday March 19th, 2018
May I begin by welcoming you all to the official launch of the 2018 Financial Literacy Week commemorations. We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to our partners for the confidence of entrusting the Bankers Association of Zambia as being the lead organisers of this event.
The organisation of this commemoration is a joint collaboration with the financial sector regulators-the Bank of Zambia, the Pension and Insurance Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The other stakeholders, being the Ministry of Finance, the Bankers Association of Zambia, the Financial Sector Deepening Zambia, as well as the Rural Finance Expansion Programme, and the German Savings Bank for International Cooperation, to begin planning for this event.
As you may be aware, Zambia joins the rest of the world in commemorating the Financial Literacy Week, which runs from March 18 to 25th, 2018. This commemoration is an annual awareness campaign which is aimed at enhancing awareness levels of the general public on matters relating to financial literacy. The theme for this year’s commemoration is ‘Save, Invest and Insure to Live a Better Life’. The commemoration of the Financial Literacy Week is aligned to the commemoration of the Global Money Week, commemorated annually in March. In line with this theme, we encourage all of you present here, as well as members of the public out there, to leverage on the Financial Literacy Week to learn as much as they can about the available savings, investments and insurance products and services.
THE GUEST OF HONOUR, DISTINGUISHED INVITED GUESTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
As an Association, we remain committed to working with other financial sector players in order to upscale financial inclusion levels in the country, from the current 59 percent to about 80 percent, by 2022. As a demonstration of our commitment towards this cause, one of the key objectives of the Association is accelerating financial inclusion through enhanced financial education campaigns. This is of course in line with our commitments towards meeting the objectives as outlined in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Seventh National Development Plan, and the Vision 2030, which are national guiding documents to ensure that ‘No One Is Left Behind’.
The Financial Literacy Week serves as a great reminder for us in the financial services sector to work towards the attainment of 80 percent financial inclusion levels for the country by 2022. We have been working towards achieving this through initiatives such as the Financial Literacy Week activities, reaching all the ten provinces of the country. the Insurance and Capital Market sectors also play in integral part in enhancing financial education through initiatives such the Insurance week activities and the World Investor week, as well as the World Savings Day, which encompasses the all the Financial Sector Regulators. As a sector, we have initiatives aimed at reaching out to members of the public through engagements in the print and electronic media, sensitisation awareness activities in schools, communities, as well as continued stakeholder engagement at various levels.