Anyone who wants to know the importance of financial literacy should first understand its real meaning and definition. Financial Literacy is the education and understanding of knowing how money is made, spent and saved as well as the skills and ability to use financial resources to make decisions. These decisions include how to generate, invest, spend and save money.
Countries like Pakistan, where the financial literacy rate is very low is in serious need to educate and aware people about financial education. Youth is the backbone of any nation, as per the National Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Pakistan; the Pakistan boasts the largest percentage of youth in the world. 64 percent of the nation is younger than 30 and 29 percent of Pakistanis are between 15 and 29. Keeping this in view, the State Bank of Pakistan has started the project National Financial Literacy Program for Youth (NFLP-Y) aiming to educate our nation and make youth economically independent and strong.
Being a master trainer of NFLP-Y, I have conducted trainings in various educational institutes of different age groups. During my sessions, I felt a serious need to educate women in KPK about financial literacy. Most of the women here cannot get higher education due to several reasons. Due to lack of knowledge, women of this region cannot support their families financially. However NFLP-Y has provided a platform to the women of KPK to get financial education. It will help them to be able to make savings despite of being less educated and having limited resources.
During one of my training sessions, a student of Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Dabgari Peshawar shared her experience of money saving. She started saving her pocket money and maximized it to 32,000/- rupees. I was overjoyed with her experience, as it justified my aim of serving youth. I have come across many such stories where students exchanged different saving ideas.
By profession I am a lawyer, so I would suggest my fellow lawyers to spread the financial literacy cause all over the country so that people can live a prosperous and wealthy life.