Botswana Life plugs financial literacy gap
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday September 23, 2016 16:25
In an interview with BusinessWeek, Botswana Life CEO, Bilkiss Moorad said they have decided to embark on the initiative after observing that there are gaps in general knowledge and understanding of financial products and services amongst locals.
“We have realised that most people do know how to save and are interested in saving but the main problem is how they use those savings. It matters to us to empower them and contribute by raising the general levels of financial literacy,” Moorad said.
According to the CEO, as a market leader, they have a sense of responsibility to ensure that they are proactive in attempting to close the gap. She said that they have also observed that most people who save prefer to do short term investments as opposed to long term.
“We have hence decided to launch a radio show aimed at sensetising people about financial literacy. The talk show is intended to educate and empower our listeners to become more astute on the broad spectrum of issues of personal financial management,” she said.
The show, which will be called ‘Money life’, will be basically tackling issues of money in people’s lives as directed by the various seasons and staged of life that you are in.
She noted that their end goal is to help individuals and families enhance their financial wellbeing, as it will have interactions with listeners. “Through the show, we intend to inspire and encourage listeners to be intentional and committed about how they manage their funds,” Moorad added. In addition, she noted that they want to ensure that the public at large is empowered when it comes to understanding the options they have before them and the impact of the decisions they make on a wide range of issues through the various stages in one’s life from childhood to retirement.
She said establishing personal financial management skills require individuals to be intentional and diligent about how they manage and utilise their funds.
“It needs commitment, and this doesn’t necessarily come easily for some of us, therefore the show will also serve to inspire and encourage us to be intentional and committed about how people manage their funds,” she added.