The core objective of this initiative by the British Council is to create awareness among teachers, entrepreneurs, and students about financial literacy, and to develop basic skills on effective financial management, which is a core life skill to survive and excel in the increasingly complex modern society,” - Barbara Wickham, Director, British Council
The British Council and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) celebrated the Global Money Week 2017 by organising a panel discussion titled ‘Building the Next Generation Socio-Economically Capable and Responsible’.
This year the theme of Global Money Week is ‘Learn.Save.Earn.’ It is an annual global celebration, initiated by Child & Youth Financial International (CYFI). The aim of celebrating the week every year in more than 130 countries around the world is to develop financial literacy as a core skill among children in the modern society.
This panel discussion session was the second among a three-phased celebration of the week. The first phase was held on 1 April 2017, where an interactive session on ‘Efficient Time and Money Management’ was conducted by Professor Dr. Yousuf Mahbubul Islam, Vice Chancellor (VC), Daffodil International University (DIU) with 30 students from different universities.
In the second phase, a panel discussion moderated by Shawkat Hossain Masum from the Daily Prothom Alo discussed how to educate socio-economically capable and responsible youth. The distinguished panelists were Md Abul Bashar, GM, Financial Inclusion, Bangladesh Bank, Md Sabur Khan, CIP, Chairman, Daffodil Group, Ajay Dasgupta, Associate Editor, Daily Samakal and Shaulee Kamal Khan, Head of Regulatory Compliance and General Counsel, HSBC Bangladesh. Sixty participants, including heads of different institutions, teachers and entrepreneurs joined this session.
The third phase, titled ‘Learn.Save.Earn: Financial Literacy Workshop and Games’ started from 9 April 2017 and continued until 12 April 2017. Around 1000 students from four primary schools in Dhaka city named Bakshibazar Govt. Primary School, Kakoli High School and College, Hazi Majharul Haque Govt. Primary School and Udayan Higher Secondary School participated in knowledge building games titled ‘Learn.Save.Earn: Financial Literacy Workshop and Games’. Through this interactive activities, kids were introduced to the concept of resources, savings, the best ways of saving money, best utilisation of money and saving and importance of savings. HSBC volunteers supported the British Council to facilitate the workshops successfully.
To mark the occasion Francois de Maricourt, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bangladesh said, “We at HSBC are committed to support youth around the world to build their confidence and decision making, and help raise their aspirations by supporting programmes that increase their financial literacy knowledge. With a solid financial understanding, young people will benefit from day-to-day decisions such as the ability to budget, generate savings and invest for their future.”
The British Council, which has already reached thousands of children in hundreds of schools in Bangladesh through language, social and leadership programmes, has taken the responsibility to equip the future leaders of tomorrow’s Bangladesh with financial literacy through this programme.
