Financial expert advises parents to teach their young ones to save

A financial literacy expert from Mountains of the Moon University, Revocate Abwoli Keneema has advised parents to teach their young ones to save so that they can effectively plan for their future, “parents should teach their young ones how to save for instance using piggy banks and every person can save, young or old, rich or poor. You can never say that you have no money” Said Revocate while appearing on the ToroDev supported live radio discussion on Better FM called Listeners Forum on Sunday, 25^th January 2014.

Bank of Uganda Headquarters which regulates financial sector

Revocate further advised people to focus on saving the little they have rather than getting loans because loans come with costs, “you can avoid loans through saving because loans comes with costs” Said Revocate.

The live radio discussion which broadcasts every Sunday (08-10pm) and discussing a topic on financial literacy was also attended by Kumwe Bbala Eric from Initiative for Rural Development Uganda who advised people to always know what they are going to use the loan for before getting it, “you must also know what you are going to use the loan for? For instance school fees is coming and it’s important to save for school fees rather than getting a loan to pay for school fees and many people fail to meet their loan obligations because of lack of a proper plan” Said Eric.

Eric also sensitized the public on some of the basics of managing a loan, “when you get a loan, you have to know that you have to pay it back. Getting a loan also needs security and every loan has costs attached to it. In getting a loan there are also costs for instance a person from Fort Portal it’s not advisable to get a loan from Mubende.” Said Eric.

Listeners participated through call-ins, SMS and online for instance Nsimenta Apollo from Kamwenge sent an SMS inquiring whether there are Boda Boda or agricultural loans. Nguru Benson from Ntoroko sent an SMS saying that loans these days are a problem.

Mugisa from Kasese called-in and said that most people get loans and go to the butcher to buy meat or bar to drink and hence end up mis-using the loan. Benon from Hakibaale called-in and advised the listeners to use the loans to achieve the objectives they were got for. Ronald from Mugusu called-in and inquired what can be done when you get a loan, buy a cow and it dies?

 The live radio discussions are supported by SIDA/CIPESA and NED on a project aimed at converging appropriate ICT tools to improve service delivery in the Rwenzori Region.