An insurance firm, Equatorial Insurance Brokers has embarked on a campaign of sensitizing secondary school learners of various financial literacy programmes aimed at equipping them with skills and knowledge about the financial sector in the country.

Managing Director of the Company Thomas Ronald Kambale has told Zodiak Online that his institution has initiated what is being called the Mwana wa Nzeru Insurance Services Literacy programme targeting the secondary school learners to gain information that they can share with their parents and guardians and their communities.

“We have noted that knowledge uptake about financial services is going down in Malawi. And we hope that with this arrangement, we can allow more people to understand this approach and effectively use it,” said Kambale.

He added: “We are advocating for mindset change towards financial services. We are not talking about insurance services only, but all financial services in general. This shall include banking, Online transactions, and pensions among others.”

“Since we already have expertise and human resources, we would like to reach out to 80 percent of secondary schools in the country in the next 5 years”.

Financial literacy focuses on the ability to manage personal finance effectively, which requires experience in making appropriate personal finance choices, such as savings, insurance, real estate, college payments, budgeting, retirement and tax planning.

Already the institution has taken its sensitization to learners at Wukani Education Facility School in Mzuzu.

During the activity, the learners were exposed to various financial literacy circles. The initiative coincided with the opening of the company’s regional offices in Mzuzu.

A form four student at the school Fyaupi Msukwa who aspires of becoming a successful businessperson after completing his education, says such knowledge is mostly not readily for young people like him. He says that there is a need for the organisation to reach out to more schools so that other learners can also benefit.

“Government and other stakeholders are propagating for Malawi Agenda 2023. If this needs to be achieved, the youthful generation should be taken through various concepts on financial literacy programmes. Just like Mwana wa Nzeru initiave. This will help us to grow knowing about this sector," said Fyaupi.

Malawi is one of the countries in Africa with low uptake of financial services programmes.