‘Exploit opportunities in financial market’

Consumers and businesses have been called upon to exploit the numerous opportunities available in the financial market to create wealth and eradicate poverty.

“It is imperative to create public awareness on the opportunities available on the market to consumers and businesses to enable them take full advantage of the various products and services to create wealth or raise capital to finance their projects,” Mrs. Mona Quartey, Deputy Minister of Finance said.

She was speaking at a media briefing in Accra ahead of the official launch of the 2014 National Financial Literacy Week slated to begin from September 23 to 28.

The event, themed: “Financial literacy — Key to a secured future," will bring together all the stakeholders in the financial sector, including market operators, policy makers and regulators, aimed at empowering the public with knowledge and skills to make sound financial decisions.

Mrs. Quartey said the platform would, among others, help to deepen financial intermediation, broaden inclusion to attract the unbanked and uninsured, and provide basic financial knowledge.

“It is also aimed at following through existing policy priorities to improve outreach for the full range of financial services to the population,” she said, adding that the government’s policy direction was to develop strategies that would ensure that consumers were well informed and capable of making sound financial decisions.

According to Mrs. Quartey, carrying out financial education would help address the weak demand side of financial intermediation and encourage providers to apply responsible finance principles in doing business.

She said empirical evidence gathered in the evaluation of the first Financial Literacy Week in 2008 indicated that promoting financial literacy had a direct positive impact on how users of financial services engaged the financial service providers.

During the week, she said each sub-sector of the economy would be allocated a day to educate the public on how its activities could contribute to the provision of a secured financial future for individuals.