From Uche Usim, Abuja
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday said her ministry targets to train at least 12,000 of its junior cadre civil servants on financial literacy by the end of the year.
She stated this in Abuja at the official flag-off ceremony tagged: Service–Wide Financial Literacy Programme organised in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN) and other relevant stakeholders in the finance ecosystem.
The Minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Aliyu Ahmed, said that while the pilot stage will have 12,000 staff in the ministry benefit from the training, plans were afoot to extend the opportunity to all federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) from January next year.
According to her, a formal request has been made at the Head of Civil Service of the Federation to mandate other MDAs to key into the programme to fortify targeted civil servants with final literacy knowledge.
She said: “there is a great concern on how government employees manage their finances. These days public employees face serious financial challenges as a result of the dwindling economy. Studies have shown that lack of primary skills on how to manage money, save and invest is one of the reasons public employees experience financial troubles.”/
“Another study discovered that most public servants do not cultivate saving habits, rather they are likely to spend more than what they earn. Financial education can lessen financial crises for public employees. This measure can also help promote economic revival and reduce poverty”.
The Minister further explained that those involved in the training include; GIZ, Central Bank and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
She noted that the programme will run for as long as the government is able to capture the bulk of the lower cadre civil servants.
“So, it is going to run for at least three years but it depends on the number of people that will be captured within this period. If we see that we are not able to capture the target audience, the target will be extended. For now, we are starting with the Ministry of Finance but we are calling on the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation to ensure that this cascades across the whole service”, she explained.