Blueprint Editor, Uwah Laments Low Financial Literacy In Nigeria
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – Financial illiteracy and lack of consumer awareness have been identified as the blight in the drive to grow Nigeria’s pension and banking sectors on a sustainable basis.
Sadly, many employers are already taking advantage of the distressing situation to abuse of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and operate with absolute criminal impunity in the sector.
The Editor, Southern Operations, Blueprint newspapers, Mr. Jerry Uwah made this submission at the 2017 Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents and business editors in Kano.
Uwah, who described financial literacy as criminally low across the country, said the challenge is the obvious difficulties faced by Nigerian consumers in seeking redress due to the cumbersome nature of the country’s legal process.
He also expressed worries that Nigerian workers are badly affected by this development with their apparent lack of understanding that the employers’ non-remittance of monthly pension deductions to approved pension fund administrators is a criminal offence.
In his presentation on: ‘The Role of the Media in Enhancing Financial Literacy and Consumer Protection’, Uwah noted that issues around financial illiteracy are so debilitating, saying; “Financial illiteracy in the pension sector is armed by an array of docility on the part of the cheated worker. There is the innate fear that he would be sacked if he blows the whistle on his employer’s criminal act of not remitting the worker’s pension deductions.”
According to him, industry’s regulators and supervisors must give priority attention to monitoring the process and ensuring that monthly deductions from workers’ salaries are promptly and regularly remitted to the appropriate pension fund administrators.
The veteran journalists however said a robust consumer protection package was required to tackle the pitiable level of financial literacy rate in the Nigeria given that most Nigerian consumers are unaware when their rights are daily abused.
For Uwah, the poor Nigerian consumer has been left to suffer without any help from official quarters for so long, adding; “that is why you have a situation where the banks can afford to charge high interest rates on loans but give very little on savings as interest.”
He believed that a strong liaison among the regulators, operators and the media would not only enhance financial literacy and consumer protection, but also effectively address violations currently dogging the nation’s financial system.
The Blueprint Editor is also of the view that effective engagement of the media partnership would necessarily aid the process of financial inclusion and bringing on board the huge mass of Nigerian adults that are yet to be accommodated in the financial system.
