Over 1,500 high school students across the East and Southern African region will benefit from financial literacy training in a bid to cultivate a healthy savings culture.
Octagon Africa, through the first virtual financial literacy training, themed 'Starting now for a better future, aims to educate the students on understanding money, budgeting, and saving.
“Currently the pension coverage in the country is still low at about 22 per cent of the total labour force which is heavily attributed to a poor savings culture. In order to avert these glaring numbers there is a need to cultivate healthy saving habits from a young age,” said Octagon Africa Group CEO Fred Waswa.
Octagon offers financial services on pension, actuarial services, insurance brokerage and training services to individuals, non-profit, public, and private sector organisations.
An analysis by EFG Hermes reveals that Africa's saving rate stands at an average of 17 per cent with Kenya's saving rate at 12 per cent, half of the average for low-income countries.
“Our vision as Octagon Africa is to guarantee financial security and we believe that the key to this security lies in saving cultivated from a young age. Through this financial literacy trainings, we are confident that we will be able to contribute to the increment of the savings rate across the region,” Waswa said.
The free financial literacy training for high school students is part of Octagon’s social responsibility to contribute to the region’s pension uptake across youth, employed and informal groups.
In line with its Pan-African dream, Octagon has expanded its operations to Kampala, Uganda and Lusaka, Zambia. Over the last 14 years, Octagon Africa has grown its fund portfolio to more than 200 corporate clients at the end of 2020.
