Six weeks ago, 11-year-old Diana Nakiyingi hardly knew anything to do with saving. She had never earned any money and all she understood was spend whatever her parents gave her.

“The only thing I knew about money was to budget and spend whenever the opportunity arose,” she says.   

However, Nakiyingi now has a totally different perspective towards money. All this changed for the P5 pupil after completing a financial literacy training programme on October 10 at Nakasero primary school grounds.

And, she was just one of the 500 learners of Nakasero primary school and Kampala Junior Academy who benefitted from the programme called Cha Ching Money Smart Kids.

“I have learnt to appreciate money as a source of livelihood because you have to plan how to earn and how to spend it without wasting it,” said Nakiyingi after she received a certificate of financial literacy. “From now on, I hope to save enough for my needs in life to ease some of the pressure on my parents.”

The six-week initiative was spearheaded by Prudential Uganda, which introduced learners aged between seven and 12 years to the four basic financial concepts: earn, save, spend and donate in order to empower them make wise monetary decisions in adulthood.

WHY START FROM GRASSROOTS?

This financial literacy programme for children was born out of damning statistics by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), whose January 2018 report indicates that the national poverty level had increased from 19.7 per cent in the financial year 2012/13 to 21.4 per cent in 2016/2017.

This shows that many Ugandans live in poverty due to poor money management skills and below-par financial planning for business.

A number of government programmes have been put in place such as Bank of Uganda’s Financial Literacy Information Sharing Group (FLISG), which aims at bridging the financial literacy gap, especially on the part of borrowers.

In July, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development held a financial literacy seminar for 18 to 30-year-olds as part of the government’s ‘Skilling Uganda’ initiative.

So, Prudential Uganda took the initiative further to the grassroots targeting learners. Arjun Mallik, the Prudential Uganda CEO, said: “At Prudential, we believe that knowledge of financial management should be nurtured at an early age to teach learners how to make wise life-changing financial decisions, and we hope that these pupils will grow up with the best financial habits at their fingertips and this will enable them to make good decisions throughout their journey of life. We hope the odds improve for these 500 children as a result of this programme.”

HOW IT WORKS

Now in its second edition in Uganda, Cha Ching Money Smart Kids is an interactive computer programme that introduces learners to financial literature using animations and challenges them to adhere to a strict financial discipline.

The programme originated from Asia but has found popularity worldwide due to its ease of use. It is divided into several segments starting with an introduction to money and ways of earning it. Cha Ching further explores ways of saving money through piggybanks and later tips children on smart spending on necessities at the expense of luxuries.

It winds up with tips on giving back to society through charity causes and other forms of donation. According to organisers, the hope is to have as many learners introduced to the programme so that in future, they have somewhere to start from.