The country’s financial inclusion rate is 49.1%, the Executive Director of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Marília Poças, said on Monday 28 October in Luanda.
According to the Executive Director, who was speaking at the ceremony that marked the opening of Savings Week, in the study carried out in the second quarter of this year by the BNA, only 37 per cent of respondents over the age of 15 make a family budget and 76 per cent have already had financial difficulties.
According to the manager, the low levels demonstrate the need to redouble efforts in financial education, given the challenges of the current economic context.
‘For this reason, the BNA is promoting financial education, especially this week, in order to help citizens learn about the tools they need to manage their money in the future,’ she said.
For his part, Lourenço Kibonda, a technician from the BNA’s Financial Inclusion department, pointed out that 75 per cent of every 100 Angolans do not have any financial savings.
The technician, who was presenting the topic ‘The socio-economic relevance of savings’, said that the financial institution’s study also points out that 59 per cent of the population is vulnerable and only 10 per cent is financially healthy.
The director of the BNA’s Financial Inclusion department, Edilson Pimenta, pointed out that the Coordination Committee for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy had been set up to reverse the situation.
The Committee, he said, which was set up in 2023, involves various public and private sector institutions and plans to launch the National Strategy by the first quarter of 2025.
Edilson Pimenta said that the initiative will go to public consultation in December this year for contributions on policies aimed at increasing percentage levels.
Savings Week, which is being held under the slogan ‘Money Saved Future Assured’, aims to raise awareness in society about the importance of developing savings habits as a catalysing factor for socio-economic development.
World Savings Day is celebrated on 31 October. The programme of activities, to be implemented throughout the country, includes financial education talks aimed at schoolchildren and financial inclusion campaigns for the general public.
The ‘savings week’ is aimed at the general public, with a special focus on children, young people and women, and aims to celebrate the world day.
Angop
