08 Mar 2017

 BancABC acting managing director, Ms Thembi Segage says there is need for financial institutions to assume some responsibility over consumer protection in line with the High Level Principles of Financial Consumer Protection endorsed by the G20 and World Bank in 2013.

Speaking at the bank’s financial literacy programme launch on Monday, Ms Segage said the research bulletin produced by Bank of Botswana’s research and financial stability development last year had shown that banks had experienced rapid credit growth in the past with most of the lending concentrated on household loans.

Ms Segage said the country’s central bank had a documented history of concerns that span over the past three years highlighting the growth of household credits, which remained high and its impact on financial stability and consumer welfare.

According to the World Bank, she said as financial products and delivery channels became more complex, the need for effective consumer protection rose from financial institutions.
She also said the global survey on consumer protection and financial literacy also found that access to basic financial services was a fundamental element of inclusive economic systems and contributed to poverty eradication.

Further, she noted that BancABC had officially rolled out its financial literacy programme with the aim to sensitise its customers, staff and the general public about making the most of the money they earned, no matter how much or little.

She explained that financial literacy referred to a set of skills and knowledge that allowed individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources with emphasis on the importance of saving and investments.
The bank’s learning and development manager, Ms Tootsie Sigwele said participants would understand the importance of being financially literate.

Ms Sigwele also said they would identify the importance of being financially literate and know how to budget as well as the importance of budgeting and understand the importance of protecting their assets.

She said some of the things required people to make financially clever decisions to ensure that they lived within their means and comfortably given that money was never enough. ENDS