According to the March 2019 Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), debt in relation to the household disposable was 72.7% at the end of 2018, inferring that nearly 75% of available households funds are spent towards debt.
While the Trade Economics South Africa states that household saving proportion, collapsed from 0.40% to 0.20% in the third quarter of 2018.
With consumers being highly indebted and low saving practices, this is a worrisome outlook. Some may attributes the lack of saving and decrease in saving rate to the high unemployment rate, compensation inequalities, financial strains the consumers face and minimal financial understanding.
According to the 2017 Financial Literacy study by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa has a financial literacy rate of 54%. We need a saving culture to be instilled into our nation thus enabling all South Africans to be active participants in the economy and meet their financial goals without needing to borrow money repeatedly.
Hence we pride ourselves with our financial literacy seminars known as the Ubank Sisonke Stokvel Seminars which started in 2017 said
Ubank Acting General Manager Retail banking Services, Mr. George Tlhapi.
Acting General Manager Retail banking Services, George Tlhapi.
Pic: Supplied
At Ubank, we run these seminars with the hope of having information imparted by guest speakers shared among family members and society as a whole. Our drive is to educate, empower and help our customers and communities to strive towards building their financial legacies through financial understanding.
This will enable them to make informed decisions and help them appreciate the pleasures and benefits thereof, said Tlhapi.
The next Ubank Sisonke Stokvel Seminar will be held on the 14th September 2019, at the Ben Marais Hall in Rustenburg from 10h00 in the morning until 15h00 in the afternoon.
The seminar will touch on various topics including basic principles of managing finances, savings and long term investment decisions and choices, practical money management tools and practices and fixing a bad credit record to name a few.
There will be a special appearance by the Ubank Music Brand Ambassador- The Soil and Mr. Dingaan Khumalo as Master of Ceremonies. We are truly looking forward to hosting our Rustenburg community, said Tlhapi.
To book your seat for the Rustenburg seminar SMS your name and number of attendees to 065 906 1933.