Cuba prepares National Strategy for Financial Education

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 14 (ACN) Like many countries, Cuba will soon have its own National Strategy for Financial Education (ENEF) after almost two years of scientific research, organizational and training actions, raising awareness and creating alliances between agencies and institutions across the country.

Lourdes Aintzane Delgado Corrons, a specialist with the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), told ACN about the importance of providing people with skills, habits and the ability to manage their finances through a project that benefits the population, the business sector, the new economic actors and society as a whole.

“(ENEF) will contribute to increase citizen culture of financial matters and to avoiding duplication of resources and efforts, as it is an effective instrument for planning for and guiding our efforts toward sector-specific goals by giving collective good right of way over individual or institutional benefit,” she remarked. “Our strategy is also in keeping with 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals, including decent work and economic growth, quality education, and responsible production and consumption. The more difficult the economic and financial situation is, the more important that we can deal with it cleverly and knowledgeably.”

Based both on the experiences of other nations whose syllabus include related subjects and on the analysis of the Cuban reality, potential projects are in the making for schools, families, children, students, self-employed workers, SMES and cooperatives, among others, which engage not only the banking system, but also the Ministries of Finance and Prices, Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Education and Higher Education, and the National Association of Cuban Economists and Accountants (ANEC).

“In these two years of work, we have organized workshops to launch the first ideas, public awareness campaigns, conferences and meetings with ANEC and the academia, and they have recommended us to take into account issues like equity and gender and pay particular attention to the elderly,” the expert pointed out.

Now in its final stages of design, Cuba’s ENEF will be launched in July, following its approval by a Strategic Committee and, most importantly, a broad communication campaign so that the citizens, the business system and the new economic actors learn about its scope, significance and benefits.