Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is putting the case to push the
concept of financial literacy among Barbadians.
On Tuesday during a meeting hosted by the Congress of Trade Unions and
Staff Associations (CTUSAB) and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) at
the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium, which was also streamed live, Mottley
said she has asked Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and
Commerce, Dwight Sutherland, to establish financial literacy clinics
in this country.
“The same way we know how to read and write, and the same way that we
know how to count, the average Bajan child must know all that they
need to know about financial literacy. And their parents now,
hopefully over the course of the next few years, would get that
opportunity to also be able to be literate in what are your options,”
she said.
The PM continued, “I would like to see a financial literacy clinic in
the North; on the East Coast somewhere; on the West Coast; in St.
Philip, in St. George and on the South Coast, Christ Church [or]
Oistins, somewhere – so we have five or six financial literacy
clinics.”
Her comments came as she also suggested that financial institutions
may have to put more financial advisors in place to advise ordinary
citizens on how to better manage and plan their finances. PM Mottley
made the point while noting that often persons are experiencing
difficulties managing money and require guidance.
“How many people you know who say, ‘Lord, I can’t breathe, I can’t
sleep, I can’t move because these bills got muh [sic] choked’?”
She added, “...You paying out $2,800 and getting $4,500 in take home
pay, that $2,800 can be restructured, but you need to have a credit
union or a bank willing to work with you and we can probably bring
that down to 16 or 17 hundred, but you spread it out over a longer
period of time.”
That type of advice, the PM contended, is the kind of things she wants
Barbadians to know and appreciate it.