By Kefiloe Kajane
The governor of the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL), Retṧelisitsoe Matlanyane, says it is important for young people to develop financial literacy and to know their responsibilities as consumers.
Matlanyane said this this week at the celebration of Global Money Week. This is an annual global awareness-raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that children and young people are financially aware, acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and achieve financial well-being and resilience.
The official theme for this year is ‘Take care of yourself, take care of your money’, which highlights the importance of building financial resilience and staying healthy in the current context.
Matlanyane said the forum is targeted at getting information about financial systems. She indicated that it creates awareness to the population of Lesotho on basic control of engaging in financial contracts. She said it is meant to skill the financial users about financial products and those that use financial services so that they are able to contract confidently with knowledge of what they are getting into.
“This campaign is basically for everyone but, most importantly, we would like to see the youth being part of this initiative as well so that they know their responsibilities as the consumers as much as of the responsibility of those they are contracting with being financial institutions.
“It is also important because we are in this pandemic which has compounded joblessness that was already existing in our country and it is important to learn more about important of investing from such campaigns,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Insurance Association of Lesotho, Mok’haphek’ha Lazaro said as their way of acknowledging the Global Money Week, they are trying to come up with solutions that can help them during the current pandemic, especially advising their clients the importance of investing and saving.
He noted that the industry has lost a lot during the pandemic as many of their clients cannot afford to pay premiums anymore because of Covid-19 that has affected them, even though they still need to insure their assets.
He said they are trying to come up with insurance products that can help them alleviate the problems facing the economy at this time.
The chairman of the Banking Association of Lesotho Molefi Leqhaoe said as the slogan says, banks should make sure that their clients know the importance of taking care of their money while it also stays safe.
“It is our responsibility to teach our clients about the importance of saving money and also knowing their rights while at it. We are aware that CBL now has a department that takes care of the rights of customers and people should take this into consideration,” he said.
