SBP expands scope of financial literacy programme

Will launch media campaign to create awareness of the initiative

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that it is implementing the National Financial Literacy Programme (NFLP) as one of its flagship initiatives to provide basic financial education to the unbanked and low-income strata, especially the youth and women.

"In order to create awareness of the NFLP and, more specifically, sensitise the masses regarding the on-ground execution, a mass media campaign is being launched from January 15 through the print and social media as well as radio broadcast," the central bank said in a statement on Monday.



The programme, launched on a pilot basis in August 2017 in 77 districts of the country, has now entered the second year of its implementation. The scope of the project has been extended to all 158 districts of the country.

The SBP said education on different financial themes like budgeting, savings, investment, debt management, consumer rights and obligations, Islamic banking, branchless banking and currency management had been imparted through half-day classroom trainings.

The central bank pointed out that the programme was being funded through the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) "Improving Access to Finance Facility" and was being rolled out in different phases to achieve the objective of reaching one million beneficiaries in five years.



It is "a unique public-private model, which engages banking institutions and the SBP-BSC (Banking Services Corporation) field offices to impart NFLP messages in far-flung areas of Pakistan".

NFLP is aimed at empowering the public to make better and effective decisions on the use of financial and allied services. Furthermore, it is expected to enhance competitiveness, foster innovations and increase efficiency of the financial industry to provide better services to the financially educated citizens.

The SBP announced that a dedicated NFLP toll-free helpline and a dedicated website would also be launched from January 15 to facilitate the public in getting information about the programme, its features or any other information deemed necessary.