Global Money Week 2021, held in Ukraine to raise financial awareness among children and youth, has come to an end. Events for school students took place from 15 to 21 March, and for university students – from 22 to 28 March. The theme of this campaign was “Take care of yourself, take care of your money.”
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), as a member of the International Network on Financial Education, which is part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and as a member of the Global Money Week working group, coordinated the GMW 2021 at the national level.
“This year, Ukraine has for the eighth time joined the Global Money Week international awareness raising campaign simultaneously held in over 100 countries. The NBU pays close attention to improving financial awareness of children and youth. It is vitally important for school and university students to learn early in their lives how to manage personal finances efficiently, take sound financial decisions, make savings, achieve financial goals, identify risks, and follow the main rules of payment security. It will help strengthen their wellbeing and financial sustainability,” noted Kyrylo Shevchenko, NBU Governor.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the USAID Financial Sector Transformation Project were coorganizers of Global Money Week 2021.
“Financial literacy is an important component of learning and personality development. The young have been quick to switch to noncash settlements and are becoming active users of the financial services. Effective control of money and fundamentals of financial management are important skills that during such events should be trained by experts. I am glad to note that this year’s Global Money Week was attended by school and university students from all regions of Ukraine,” said Serhii Shkarlet, Ministry of the Education and Science of Ukraine.
According to the Minister, new comprehensive curriculums for 5th–9th grades of secondary educational facilities will include a new subject called Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy. This will help schoolchildren build up knowledge and skills required for becoming active members of society, manage their lives and careers, and resolve financial and other issues.
“We strongly support awareness initiatives, such as Global Money Week, that aim to raise financial awareness of the young and assist them in making reasoned financial decisions when they grow up. The Ministry is certain that a young generation of educated and financially literate citizens will foster economic stability and welfare of Ukraine,” noted Yuliia Vitka, Deputy Chief of Party at the USAID Financial Sector Transformation Project.
In Ukraine, 291 institutions joined Global Money Week 2021. This is twice as many as in 2019.
Participants represented 253 educational facilities, including: 120 schools, 68 higher education facilities, 63 vocational training institutions, one pre-school, and one arts school.
In contrast to 2019, Global Money Week 2021 saw twice as many participants from educational institutions. The majority of educational institutions represented the city of Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk, Ternopil, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Representatives from the Deposit Guarantee Fund, volunteers from the Peace Corps in Ukraine, employees of banks and insurance companies, and representatives of NGOs and local businesses also participated.
Through more than 1,550 events, Global Money Week 2021 reached out to over 40,000 school and university students from all regions of Ukraine. Considering the quarantine restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, most events were held online.
Indirect coverage of the campaign included 250,000 views of publications on official sources of the NBU, and websources of partners and participants.
The NBU together with USAID Financial Sector Transformation initiated 40 online events. To find out more, go to the relevant website.
Despite quarantine restrictions, the online format of Global Money Week 2021 promoted new kinds of activities joined simultaneously by school and university students Ukraine-wide.
The NBU is most grateful to participants of Global Money Week 2021 for joining.
Raising financial awareness of the public is one of the NBU’s priorities. Follow the news on financial awareness events on the NBU’s official information channels.