The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The girl child aged 13 to 18 years have been challenged to embrace the savings culture. This was during the launch of a campaign dubbed #365Saving organized by a group Women4Her in collaboration with Centenary Bank several other stakeholders.
The campaign’s main goal is to impact the lives over 25,000 girls across 50 schools in the country. It is expected that at the end of this 16-week campaign, the over 25,000 targeted students, will be better savers, will have accumulated enough money to start businesses and thus be launched into entrepreneurship.
The project is timely in execution against the backdrop that as at close of 2018, Uganda compared to other countries in East Africa such as Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, has the lowest savings to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, at 13.48 per cent of GDP with majority of the population being un-banked.
The project lead Anatalia Nambooze, said that the girl child needs to be encouraged to engage in some activities that can in turn earn them some money to realise financial empowerment.
“Girls can venture into baking, handcrafts like jewellery making, to be able to save money that they can later invest, hence the launch of the Women for Her campaign themed 365 saving challenge which is here to equip students with financial literacy,” she said.
Namboze explained that Women4Her has an array of stakeholders who have joined in this campaign including , Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Network of Women in Politics, Career Path, Centenary Bank, only to mention a few.
She said she believes that if all stakeholders joined efforts, the garage can bridge the knowledge gap on saving through mentorship opportunities and creating more awareness through the campaign Nambooze Remarked.
While addressing participants, Beatrice Lugalambi, the General Manager Corporate Communications and Marketing at Centenary Bank remarked that, “the girl child needs to be empowered because soon they will be influencers of household financial decisions and it is key that they know what to do by then,” adding that, “Centenary Bank will be opening up Centevolution accounts for the girls as a platform to encourage savings because the account is specially tailored for the youth.”
Beatrice further revealed that the bank has contributed up to 50 million Uganda Shillings towards the women for her campaign.
