Rwanda: Bankers Laud Govt’s New Financial Education Strategy

Financial literacy professionals are buzzing over Rwanda’s announcement to move ahead more aggressively with its previously announced plan to position financial education at the core of the country’s overall economic growth strategy, which also includes a broader focus on financial inclusion and banking solutions for Rwanda’s citizens. The country’s goals include doubling the incidence of financial inclusion and fostering financial education programming designed to make the understanding of basic financial and money management topics as routine and successful as the teaching of other longtime core subject matter areas.

One of Rwanda’s more recent additions to its overall financial literacy strategy is to target small and mid-sized businesses with financial education programs and services so that management and employees of companies and organizations learn financial-related skills that will translate into their ability to run more successful businesses.  That, in turn, will help Rwanda’s economy as companies will more effectively and efficiently manage their budgets, cash flows, and strategic plans.  Moreover, the move to include more businesses in Rwanda’s financial literacy programming will have other secondary benefits as well, such as the expected increase in the buying of insurance and the planning for unexpected corporate, market and other events that have the potential to significantly disrupt the local, regional and national economies in Rwanda.

Banks in Rwanda are backing the country’s efforts to a very large degree on their belief that the more financially literacy the Rwandan people are, the more likely it is that individuals will embrace and utilize banks for deposits and monetary transactions.

Another byproduct of Rwanda’s move to raise financial literacy to the national economic, social and political agendas is likely to be one of the same unintended consequences of similar efforts by other countries in Africa; namely, a massive rise in confidence among individuals, families, business owners, and the populace at large as individuals gain better knowledge and skills regarding their abilities to manage money effectively, and their related impact on economic development.  Many financial literacy observers in Africa are watching the Rwanda developments closely to gain important learnings regarding the benefits of their approach and to potentially emulate Rwanda’s strategy in other nations throughout the continent.