FINANCE. Money's no kid's stuff

Kabeli Lichaba

The rich world, the Smart World, is always keen stop poverty, squalor, hunger and the seemingly reckless behaviours in handling scarce resources and commodities like money. There are efforts taken everyday, by the Smart World, to tackle irresponsible misuse of money by her people, officials, her state organs and allieds. On the other hand, there are populations that are forever poor and which show no remorse for their dilapidated situation. They simply refuse to employ profitable strategies to change their poverty-stricken status. They make no efforts to halt the absence of money, prosperity and happiness in their communities. They kill the world!

Somebody, some institution, must step up and save the dead-walking mankind from hara-kiri by providing financial education to the youth of today and parents of tomorrow and stop the rot.It is not clear whose responsibility it is to make sure that coins roll down generously down future generations without trickling down to nought: is it parents who must make sure they safe enough and educate their children about their finances; is it the responsibility of the government to introduce proper measures on handling finance profitably; or must it be left to financial institutions like banks to educate populations about the prosperous use of money? It is an intricate matter, this money business.

Governments want continuously prosperous communities for wealthy, profitable investments. Banks want their clients to make use of the institution's money and parents and children want happiness and prosperity. That it is an intricate matter is borne by the fact that since money was introduced into bartering it has always been an elusive commodity to some members of communities. Some make a lot of success out of it while for some it is a source of misery. For the so-called Third World, money and its administration is a complex, debilitating matter. It is a wonder why they do not just ignore it and do business without it, while for West it is a show of power and happiness.

In Africa there is always an endless, barren land waiting for developments either in agriculture or infrastucture,but her leaders are always involved in endless discussions on how to develop her without much success. This happens until new leaders are either elected in democratic countries or, elsewhere, new leaders simply take over a country by force. Therefore there is always not enough time and resources to tackle issues of teaching populations on how to use money meaningfully and putting some away for future generations. Simply put, there is always no money to use for financial education.

But, not so in South Africa. There is enough sufficient facilities in Mzansi to educate learners, students and others on the useful employment of money. Financial institutions can do clients a world of good if they were to ignore, presently, the lure of profits and bank on teaching future employees the joy in banking wisely. Then, everybody, including those who put their money under mattresses, would make use of the banks.