oHead of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), George Roper, is calling for a “National Financial Literacy program”. He said this is necessary because of the vulnerability of the Jamaican economy to external forces, as is being experienced worldwide and particularly in the United States.
According to Mr. Roper, there is evidence that there is a determination by a significant number of the Jamaican population to make “unsound financial decisions”. He pointed to the emergence of several schemes in the early nineties promising to pay investors large returns on their money which all collapsed.
“When those schemes went under, persons not only lost their money, some lost their lives,” he said.
Mr. Roper, who was addressing members of he Rotary Club of Mandeville, said schemes such as these have been going on since the early nineteenth century, yet persons ignore the lessons of these bad experiences and still invested in them.
He said these bad experiences did not deter thousands of Jamaicans from investing in other unsound, unregulated schemes such as Olint, Cash Plus and World Wise.
Mr. Roper said the need for a “financial literacy program” would also serve to properly prepare persons to provide for their retirement. He said it is therefore important that persons are educated to assist them in making the appropriate plans and savings provision to support their standard of living during the retirement age.
He said these are the most compelling reasons why in Jamaica we need to embark on a national financial literacy program to “promote sound financial practices” in our general communities.
