Why Financial Literacy?

The Financial Literacy Campaign is a result of endless complaints by non-bank financial consumers who are unable to make informed choices and decisions due to complexity of both financial products and services. We have through our different regulatory departments found out that many Batswana either invest in companies that are neither registered nor licensed by NBFIRA and end up losing their hard earned money due to lack either of not knowing what to look for before investing in any investment entity.

Our target audience is Youth, workers, community leaders, Unions, NGOs etc which we will continue to engage throughout our Consumer Financial Literacy Campaign over a period of three years.

We have also made an observation that there has been a shift from investing in non-formal financial assets such as property and cattle to investing in complex financial products in a quest to improve long term returns and diversify their investment portfolios. We have deliberatively included our Retirement and Investment Institutions department to educate consumers which most of them are pensioners on the importance of understanding these complex investment instruments and regulatory frameworks governing them to help them make informed decisions conversely avoid investing in Ponzi Schemes.

There have been incidents of reckless borrowing by consumers from Micro Lenders regardless of high interests. We have realized that consumers don’t sign contracts with micro lenders and also understand contractual terms before signing for an insurance policy.

“We are concerned as a Regulatory Authority due to many and complex financial products and services which pose at the greatest risk to the consumers particularly when the industry chases short-term profitability at the expense of consumers,” said Tapologo Kwapa, NBFIRA Communications and Public Affairs Manager.

NBFIRA as a regulator of non-bank financial institutions has a mandate to ensure that consumers have confidence in the non-bank financial sector. Confidence can be increased when consumers are well informed and aware about the available financial products and services and their rights and responsibilities when it comes to dealing with financial products and services. Consumers also need to know the available recourse mechanisms available to them should they encounter unfair business practices while dealing with such entities. 

In light of the above, the role of our consumer financial literacy education is to;

• Improve consumer awareness and encourage responsible and informed consumer choice and behavior. This will be achieved by provision and transfer of information to the consumers which will improve their knowledge and skills;
• Promote consumer confidence, empowerment and development of a culture of consumer responsibility;
• Create awareness and educate the general public about their rights and responsibilities when dealing with financial service / product providers. This offers consumers protection from fraudulent practices and exploitative market operations. This is in recognition of the importance of the unequal power relations between consumers and service providers and the importance of regulation.

Consumer education on financial literacy is a shared responsibility among many stakeholders all of which have a powerful and legitimate role to play: government, schools, youth, financial institutions, employers, trade unions, community organizations, and NGOs hence development and implementation of our Consumer Financial Literacy Strategy.  The Authority has developed strategic relationships with various stakeholders in enhancing financial literacy capabilities such the Consumer Protection department in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Consumer Watchdog has on numerous occasions invited us to take part in their show, we have done lectures to UB student invited by the of Department of Family & Consumer Sciences and the Ministry of Agriculture during the launch of their Financial Literacy Campaign Launch to eliminate the possibility of duplication and wasted effort.

We are however still seeing many Batswana using unregistered and unlicensed Micro Lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. The irony of it is that they end coming to us to lodge complaints despite being warned of using such micro lenders. We are through our campaigns continuing to educate Batswana through different radio stations such as Yarona FM, RBI and Btv (Molemo Wa Kgang) on regulatory instruments and recourse mechanisms when dealing any registered or licensed entity by NBFIRA.