Financial gurus meet in Arusha next week

DODOMA: LOCAL and foreign stakeholders in the financial sector are expected to gather in Arusha next week at the National Financial Services Week (NFSW) which among other things will focus on providing financial education to the public.

According to the Commissioner for Financial Sector Development in the ministry of Finance, Dr Charles Mwamaja, the NFSW is expected to take place from November 20-26 at the Sheikh Amri Abeid grounds and that it will convene various stakeholders including public servants, students, teachers and lecturers.

Other expected to participate are women, youth, people with special needs, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), civil society, media, financial service providers, children and the general public.

The major objectives of the event according to him are to create awareness and professionalism to the public on the right use of financial services to assist in building the economy and eliminate poverty, strengthening the efficiency of financial markets through financial education, increase access to financial services as well as providing education on consumer protection for the users of financial services.

Others are enabling the general public to properly manage their financial resources, enabling small entrepreneurs to increase their knowledge and the right use of financial services in developing their businesses, improving the culture of saving, borrowing and paying debts; and increasing the contribution of the Financial Sector to economic growth of the country.

Dr Mwamaja told journalists in Dodoma on Wednesday that the NFSW was one of the planned events in the implementation of the Financial Sector Development Master Plan 2020/21 – 2029/30, insisting that public education was one of the priority areas in the implementation of the Plan.

“In the implementation phase, the Ministry of Finance has prepared the Financial Education Program for 2021/22-2025/26. This programme has set strategies including various events and methods that will be used in the provision of financial education to the public. One of the strategies is conducting the Financial Services Week in October/November every year where financial education is provided to general public through various means,’’ he said.

In the implementation of the Financial Education Program, the government plans that by the year 2025 approximately 80 percent of the general public will have gained an understanding of basic financial issues, according to the Deputy Commissioner for Financial Sector Development, Dionisia Mjema.

According to FinScope’s Survey 2023, only 53.8 percent of the workforce use formal financial services, leaving a large group of Tanzanian population not benefiting from those services and thus lack opportunities to improve their lives through various economic activities to enable them to contribute to the growth of the GDP and the economy at large.