Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia tips on financial literacy, resilience in post COVID management

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana has tipped masses about lessons on policies that strengthen household financial resilience to overcome shocks.

He shared that the pandemic has presented countries with enormous policy challenges and policymakers have had to balance limited resources among livelihoods, health, food systems, commerce, and the associated recession.

The VP made the remarks while delivering a keynote address at the virtual launch of the Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa) Biennial Conference of the International Consortium for Social Development University of Johannesburg, July 2021.

FCAB Africa is a strategic partnership among a diverse set of university researchers, social-work and human-service practitioners, financial-service providers, policymakers, and donors.

The initiative aims to increase financial capability and asset holding in order to improve financial stability and security of socially and financially marginalized populations in Africa, thereby strengthening their social and economic well-being.

In his keynote, Dr Bawumia explained that as Ghana and countries across the continent recover from the hardships of the pandemic, everyone, but especially vulnerable families, needs access to beneficial financial services and the knowledge and skills to make optimal financial decisions.

“As FCAB Africa launches, the issue of financial resilience has never been more salient. The vision of FCAB Africa is timely. It is a unique opportunity to expand the capacity of human-service professionals, who work in communities across the country, to deliver basic knowledge and guidance, and to promote improved finance,” he said.

According to Dr Bawumia, this direction in the post-pandemic regime will ultimately reduce businesses' operating costs and may improve affordable access to financial services and products, particularly for the most vulnerable citizens. He committed to the continued support to the development of financial technology with good governance, as well as policies around privacy, data sharing, unequal access, and cybersecurity.

Uganda Christian University, one of the partners of FCAB in Uganda through their Vice Chancellor Academics, Rev. Dr. John Kitayimbwa acknowledged FCAB for highlighting the current gaps among many university graduates regarding working knowledge on financial capabilities and asset building.

He expressed UCU's readiness to collaborate with all FCAB-Africa stakeholders in achieving objectives and overall goal saying UCU will leverage local community partnerships and external collaborations to drive new innovations towards financial inclusion for all.

“UCU will specifically integrate FCAB content into her programs for all to acquire all the important knowledge for themselves, and the skillset for their professional application. This is in line with UCU's theme: 'A complete education for a complete person',” he shared.

Rev. Dr Kitayimbwa noted that the University is committed to integrating financial education especially as foundational knowledge; and the initiative spearheaded by UCU's Department of Social Work & Social Administration will eventually be rolled out to all for all faculties.

The FCAB Africa initiative lead, Dr. David Ansong a distinguished professor at School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shared that the economic inequalities amplified by the ongoing pandemic have far-reaching effects on the well-being of many individuals and families. He explained that currently, 90% of the extremely poor live in Africa much as Africa’s Agenda 2063 outlines ambitious continental goals to address the challenge of overall well-being.

Working with local partners in the financial sector, FCAB Africa will create comprehensive financial-development content, incorporating financial education, coaching, and counseling within existing financial services, including fintech platforms. To date, the initiative has been joined by partners in Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Moses Okumu the FCAB Africa co-lead and professor at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said Dr Bawumia’s inspirational and insightful key note had given them hope in their pursuit of advancing financial capability and asset holding for all Africans, to raise the standard of living and wellbeing across the continent.

“The actual field work has now began, and as part of this exercise, we will collaborate with our in-country partners to develop, test and evaluate a FCAB curriculum, delivery modalities, and contextualized training materials. We look forward to growing our networks and sustaining collaborations.”