By Thoboloko Ntšonyane
MASERU – The Minister of Communications, Science, and Technology Hon. Tsionyane Rapapa said the Cabinet had last week discussed banking policy albeit informally, saying it will be discussed and adopted in today’s meeting.
This he said at the closing ceremony of the Money Month campaign in Maseru yesterday while speaking on behalf of the Minister of Finance.
Money Month campaign was launched on April 25 and ran for a month. During the course of its running, there were different campaigns that were mounted to capacitate the members of the public on subjects around personal financial management.
This is an annual campaign and this year, it ran under the theme “Build your future, be smart about money”.
Hon. Rapapa said: “The Lesotho Money Month campaign is closely linked to the national policy priority of financial inclusion. Our efforts of including everyone in financial services while they cannot make basic financial decisions will bear little fruit if any.
“It is therefore imperative that as we embrace members of our society into the financial world, they possess some awareness of how the world of finances work[s] and that they can make their own decisions in that world.
“Financial education and awareness, therefore, form an important complement and co-requisite to financial inclusion. The 2022 Lesotho Money Month Campaign was an important building block to the Kingdom’s financial inclusion aspiration.”
Also the government Spokesperson, Rapapa mentioned that the Financial Consumer Protection Bill has already been debated and adopted by both houses of Parliament (National Assembly and Senate) and is now awaiting Royal Assent.
This legal instrument covers areas such as disclosure, transparency, fair treatment and business conduct, protection of personal information and privacy, and access to effective resolution mechanisms.
“Thus, it clearly defines the rights and responsibilities of both financial consumers and financial service providers,” he stressed.
Rapapa said the government is in talks with their domestic, regional, and international friends and partners in the process of developing two legal frameworks envisioned to promote financial literacy and inclusion namely; Financial Inclusion Policy (2022), and Financial Education (FE) Strategy, 2022-2026 respectively.
The Minister also remarked that the Money Month campaign had “identified [the] national problem of household over-indebtedness”.
For his part, the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) tacting Governor Lehlomela Mohapi said there is a psychological relation as regards the peoples’ relations with money.
This he said reflecting on the Money Month campaign.
Mohapi further mentioned what he called five money personalities from the big spenders, savers, debtors, shoppers to investors.
The acting Governor further impressed on the “triggers and motivators” that influence peoples’ behaviours when they have money.
He said the Emotional Quotient plays a role in financial success, highlighting self-awareness, self-regulation, personal mastery, internal motivation, and consistent application of these traits as key.
“With practice, self-motivation becomes self-mastery,” he emphasized.
The Principal Officer at Katleho Securities, the first company to be listed in the Maseru Security Market (MSM), Leonard Nyambura said money is but the medium of exchange that loses value over some time.
He said people ought to be investors adding, that “successful investing takes time, discipline and patience”.
Nyambura further stressed that people should be “smart” with their monies cautioning them to wean themselves from taking hasty and uncalculated decisions when investing.
He said investing earlier is better than playing a “catch-up”.
“Investment is a journey. It will be difficult, but it is a journey that you will have to walk through. Building your future, you need to be smart about the money,” he said.
Some of the successes recorded since the observation of the Money Month campaign include the integration of financial education into schools’ curricula from Grade 8 to Grade 11.
Among the participants in the event were the captain of the industries in the banking and insurance sector, mobile money operators, members of security institutions, and representations from tertiary institutions.