Africa-Press – Angola. Bank accounts in the Angolan financial system and term deposits have registered significant growth in the sector in recent years. This data was shared, this Monday (31), in Luanda, by the Executive Director of the National Bank of Angola for the Financial Education Area.
Beatriz dos Santos spoke at the opening of the launch of the “Financial Education Workshop”, organized by the BNA in allusion to its 46th anniversary, and which also coincided with the World Savings Day, celebrated yesterday.
According to the administrator Beatriz dos Santos, without however advancing the figures that illustrate the real growth, currently, the existence of a culture of savings is already being felt among the population; remarkable growth in the increase in savings accounts, retracted as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and the financial difficulties that have been occurring around the world in recent times, and that Angola was no exception.
“We were all challenged by the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent increase in the prices of essential goods and services, bringing to the fore the issue of managing personal and family finances between generations, promoting the importance of ensuring tranquility and resilience to them”, he stressed.
Beatriz dos Santos explained that regarding the mobilization of lineages to the savings process, in addition to the events already held in Luanda on financial education, the BNA, through regional delegations, has also given lectures to citizens on the savings process.
“Savings should not be what is left over, but from that amount that, even if it is small, before spending, we take a little and rationalize what remains, above all, for what are essential expenses”, he said.
Regarding the transformation into credit to the economy, he underlined that in terms of loans, banking has made positive changes, although the savings currently made by customers are still not enough to boost the economy.
If, on the one hand, there is still not enough value or funding to make the leap, he said, on the other hand, it is the role of banks to use deposits to lend to the economy.
In this context, in order for the situation to improve even more, Beatriz dos Santos defends the “Financial Education Workshop” as one of the drivers of what is to educate to save.
“With large savings, we will have more financing for the economy, because the financing for the loan has to come from the customers’ own account, which is why the workshops we have carried out over the years are an example, and, in addition to monitoring and financial resources that there must be, the BNA has worked over the years on what are the constraints to credit, because one of the biggest embarrassments is savings”, he said.
Asked whether or not customers’ savings will be able to finance the economy, the BNA administrator stressed that with its own growth, especially from schools and people’s better education, savings will be better and the sector will have better conditions to finance the economy with what belongs to the consumers of banking services themselves.
Teaching in schools
The Minister of Education, Luísa Grilo, present at the opening of the Financial Education Workshop, stressed that the insertion of financial content in the school education system at the country level has been a reality and functional for about 10 years.
Today, he said, education in Angola already has educational manuals on Financial Education.
According to the Minister of Education, many children are innovative in Financial Education matters and, in order to further strengthen the education system, the partnership established between the Ministry of Education and the National Bank of Angola allowed the introduction of program content in schools and in different subjects, especially in the Mathematics course, where students learn about entrepreneurship.
“In this subject of entrepreneurship, students learn about savings, profit, use of currency and the care to be taken with it”, he guaranteed.
Financial Education Workshop until the 5th
The event is an initiative of the BNA with the aim of promoting financial education among children, young people and adults through the sharing of knowledge, discussions of various topics, namely, the management of personal and family finances, savings and respective methods, among others.
It will run from 31 October (yesterday) to 5 November (Saturday), under the motto “Building Independence and Financial Resilience”. This journey aims to alert the target audience about the importance of savings to achieve financial independence.
In the workshop, more than 10 stands are on display, including recreational activities, animation and games based on financial themes, an informative moment and the distribution of leaflets. Within the workshop, children and adolescents , in addition to receiving the book “Caderno de Educação Financeira” will learn until the fifth of November topics on consumer protection, savings and personal investment, bank agents, credit and indebtedness, instant payments, our Kwanza, functions of the Commercial Bank and the Central Bank.
The Executive Director of Banco Nacional de Angola for the Financial Education Area, Beatriz dos Santos, stressed that the institution reiterates its commitment to continue with the development and strategies aimed at promoting management and savings habits among citizens, placing them at the time of technological transformation in the financial sector. Also for the simplification and agility of processes to transform the day-to-day not only of professionals, but also of consumers, with emphasis on banking, insurance and stock exchanges, where, currently, payments are already made with a simple touch on cell phones. (mobile phones).
Launched “Financial Education Notebook”
As part of reinforcing the financial education process, the BNA launched the comic strip called “Financial Education Notebook”, with the title “Kanito Visits the Currency Museum”.
The Caderno is the first of a chain of annual blocks that succinctly describes the historical evolution of the currency in Angola. It highlights the different stages in the history of the currency, as well as the main currency units used from the oldest periods to the present, raising the historical and cultural value of currency, as a symbol of national sovereignty.
The aforementioned notebook was launched yesterday by the director of the Financial Education Department of the BNA, Teresa Evaristo. It is aimed at children and teenagers in primary and secondary education, in particular, but also aims to bring the general public together with topics related to personal finance. Comprising four chapters, the cartoon book has 57 pages and gives a brief description of the first coins used in various regions of the world, with emphasis on Libya, people responsible for creating the metallic coin with the characteristics that are used to this day of today.
On the one hand, it describes the coins in the form of objects illustrated with the flora, fauna and the individualities that were and are part of these important environments. The history of Angola’s currency is in the third chapter and illustrates the country from the use of currency symbols, cases of Zimbo, Libongo, Cauris, Manilha, Sal, Escudo and others.
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