Joyce Namugambe
The State Minister in the office of the Prime Minister for Luwero Triangle and Rwenzori region Hon Alice Kaboyo has officially launched the Financial Diet Academy which is aimed at equiping the country with skills of managing financies for the people’s own good and the country’s development.
Minister Kaboyo launched the Academy at Fairway Hotel in Kampala under the theme “Learn how to make, Keep and Grow your money.
In her speech, Hon Kaboyo commended the Financial Diet Ltd for initiating the Academy since according to her, it will positively impact Ugandans in issues concerning Financial management.
Hon Kaboyo stressed that the goverment has put ingredients into the financial diet to kick poverty out of Ugandans through introducing programs such as PDM, Emyooga among others to see that it transforms its people. She stressed that these programs have not done alot because Ugandans donot have enough knowledge about managing financies which has affected the government’s aims towards the programs, thereby giving thumbs up to the Financial Diet for the great idea.
One of the Co- Founders of the Financial Diet Barbra Kyobutungi emphasised that the Financial Diet was started with apurpose of equiping and empowering individuals with basic knowledge and skills as far as their financies are concerned.
She added that this is the time when Uganda is experiencing high poverty levels which is mostly caused by lack of financial knowledge among people interms of saving the money they make, how they are supposed to keep it, how they invest and protect it sothat it benefits them, which attracted attention of the financial Diet to come out and bridge the gaps.
Patricia Asasira, another Co- founder stressed that the Academy has got specific curriculum that was customised basing on different age groups such as the Financial Diet Academy for the adults called the Apex, Financial Diet Bloom for the University and Tertiary institution students, and Financial Diet Teens which is for the teens. She noted that this was done to enable people at different levels to acquire skills at different levels.
She added that they look at impacting people with the knowledge on how their mind thinks towards money, they train people on how to invest, how to save, how to manage money, they train on insurance and how to appreciate it among other issues.
Grace Muliisa , the managing Director of ECO bank expressed the need for providing more information to the public about saving and avoiding money wastage in any way, through passing information to the people right from the age of 15 years to the working class level since its for the good of the nation and individuals. Thereby commending Financial Diet for the Academy.
She added that making money is too easy but people dont know how to keep and sustain it to help them sustain their needs. She highlighted that if people are to make good use of their money, they need to sacrifice, be committed, be determined, have clarity of purpose not giving up among other factors. According to Grace, for money to grow, people should look for partnerships, and investment opportunities to see it grow and enable them to achieve their dreams.
The Financial Manager in charge of Literacy from NSSF Apollo Mboowa emphasised that the wealth journey is about making money, keeping money and growing money. He arged people to plan for their money and make sure that by the time they eat it, their money has grown enough sothat they eat it without excuses.
He revealed that out of 46 million Ugandans, only 1.6% have balances in NSSF and only 18% are working class. He added that many people keep getting their money from NSSF to fulfill obligations that are totally different from the aims and targets of the NSSF saving such as retirement due to poor planning and at the end of the day their savings dont benefit them.
Financial Diet was opened 5 years back and it has been supported by different partners of which they were appreciated with awards at the function.
