SPECIAL FOCUS
Consumer education
– the key to financial
inclusion
As the banking industry strives to increase access to
basic financial products, it is fundamental that South
Africans are educated to use those products.
I
t is an open secret that South Africa has a poor savings
culture. Many South Africans suffer from over-indebtedness,
with unscrupulous financial services providers who offer
inappropriate financial products not suited to their needs. This
is partly due to a lack of consumer financial education.
As a result stakeholders in South Africa’s financial sector have
placed consumer financial education on the national agenda.
Financial services firms are expected to spend a portion of their
profits on consumer financial education initiatives.
The idea behind consumer education is to empower people with
adequate financial information aimed at helping them to understand
financial products better, make informed choices about products,
and be aware of the risks that these products carry.
Consumer education is key to building a financially inclusive
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BANKER SA
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society and improving the financial well-being of the population.
With proper consumer education, it is expected that South Africans
will be better equipped to improve their lives, through investing and
creating wealth, and avoiding poverty traps which are partly due to
over-indebtedness.
To drive this agenda the Financial Sector Code, published in
November 2012, prov Y\