12 Oct 2016

A book titled Don’t worry, Go tla a siama is aimed at helping people process economic information and make informed decisions about their financial well-being.

Speaking during an interview, the author, Albert Gaopelo, said after seeing many Batswana retire almost empty handed during his tenure as a board member at Botswana Telecommunications Corporations (BTC)

Pension Fund Scheme because of poor borrowing habits, he got convinced that the trend could be interrupted.

“I thought to myself, if people could be taught how to handle money properly, how to deal with credit, how to accumulate wealth and the importance of planning for life after retirement when there is no monthly salary coming in, then we can break this habit,” he added.

He said money is a challenge and also a transferable skill from an elder to a youngster, therefore this book is also an intervention, which calls for behavioral change to the elders so that younger generation can learn from them.

Gaopelo said the book tackles a step by step journey from a life of financial crisis, debt and embarrassment to a haven of financial freedom, mastery and security, also meant for everyone’s basic foundation of managing finances.

He said lack of financial knowledge contributes much to the crippled economy the country is experiencing as people do not have financial vision, which leads to spending much and not saving nor investing.

Mr Gaopelo noted too much spending ends up creating debts and even though it creates a business opportunity for the banks as people will be getting loans and topping up to their existing loans, still people end up losing their pensions.

Furthermore, he said people end up becoming prisoners to their salaries or income and referred to it as people who have sold their future, their financial freedom as they will spend the rest of their lives paying back the loans.

In his book, he also discusses two types of debts, which are good and bad, which he said good debts statistics sums a total of ten percent while the bad debts sums a total of 90 percent, which he said are mostly taken for fun and unplanned.

Gaopelo emphasised that lack of financial literacy if not attended to, will continue crippling the economy and it will even affect or defeat the government initiatives.

“Government initiatives are meant to improve lives of Batswana but they will surely fail if they do not have at least the required knowledge of the importance of managing finances,” he added.

He encouraged the companies to make sure their staff is well equipped with financial knowledge to avoid situations of being trapped in debts, adding that debts affects the morale of staff.

However, he said there are many ways companies could  help their staff so they do not find themselves in debt, citing an example that they should be part of the start not an ending; providing policies that will monitor their finances .

Furthermore, he said he wishes to see the book making a positive impact on the lives of Batswana, especially the young adults who have just started working and those who are already in debt to find ways of ending them without compromising their lives.

He lamented that in most cases, people find themselves in compromising financial situations because of lack of information, therefore his wish is to see financial literacy being availed in school curriculums, right from basic education.

The author described his book as user friendly and has an ability to open many people’s eyes, hence helping them to put their foot down and say, “enough is enough” to the financial crisis they may be heading to.
Gaopelo is also a businessman, the managing firector of Red Army Limited, which is a telecommunications engineering company specialiSing in cutting edge optical fibre technologies. ENDS