By David Ssempijja

OVER 8,000 people will have a chance to enhance their knowledge about financial services-related matters through a programme spearheaded by Financial Literacy Foundation.

The body, under its second phase of national population financial literacy sensitisation programme, plans to hold regional clinics.

“We plan to hold regional financial literacy clinics in Kampala, Masaka, Mbarara, Arua, Gulu and Mbale to enlighten locals about the basic knowledge of handling financial services,” the foundation project coordinator, Ali Taha, said recently.

The foundation will spend two days in each region as commercial banks, insurance firms, savings and credit cooperative organisations and microfinance institutions conduct free exhibitions.

The three-month programme is expected to kick-off in January. It will also feature on radio talk shows.

Taha said locals would be sensitised on the best financial practices, relevancy of particular financial services and Uganda’s financial literacy levels.

“We shall teach people how to calculate interests on the loans they secure, how to identify genuine financial service providers, strict follow-up of their bank statements, loan usage and relevancy of banking,” he said.

He said the sensitisation programmes would be conducted in local languages to ensure deep information penetration.

The foundation is working on modalities to ensure that the Government through the National Planning Authority integrates financial literacy into the national development plan.

A recent survey established that only 38% of Ugandans use financial institutions of any type, leaving the majority of the population out.