Financial services provider Old Mutual and the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) have unveiled a campaign to improve financial literacy among junior and senior secondary school teachers in Kenya.

The partnership will see teachers equipped with the capacity to effectively implement financial literacy concepts that will also be embedded into the curriculum during normal learning.

“Part of our responsible business ethos at Old Mutual is to integrate skills development and financial literacy in the work that we do to support the communities where we operate in," said Arthur Oginga, Old Mutual Group CEO.

"This initiative is right at the heart of our objective to enable Kenyans acquire the necessary financial skills to become economically active, meet their financial goals, and drive the development goals of our country,” he said.

The pilot phase of the programme, which will be running virtually, will be launched in February next year and the two institutions are developing the financial literacy training course.

KICD Chief Executive Officer, Prof Charles Ong’ondo, said the partnership will help teachers develop financial literacy skills to pass on to learners under the competency-based curriculum.

“Our interest as KIDC is to ensure that every learner, who goes through the CBC, can demonstrate an awareness of resource mobilization, specifically financial mobilization, and prudent expenditure of that resource," he said.

"We believe this will lead to sound, prudent, and financial management among our learners and will also trickle down to households and communities and birth a country that has reduced debt at the individual level, community, corporate, and the national level”.

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The course will be rolled out under Old Mutual’s program 'Learn. Think. Do' – which is part of the organization’s strategy to reach over 30 million people across Africa to acquire financial literacy skills to enable them to achieve their financial goals.

Through the initiative, Old Mutual has invested Kes21 million to support KICD and other partners in developing the financial literacy mainstreaming matrices, the online orientation course for teachers, and guidelines for education sector partners.

Once complete, the course will be rolled out to at least 100 teachers under a pilot phase in five counties. Physical monitoring of the pilot phase will be conducted to offer teachers professional support.

This aims to identify gaps, make the necessary changes, and later roll out across the country to all teachers for national implementation.

The course will cover key areas including self-exploration skills that unpack self-awareness, personal values, problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making skills, talents, and abilities.

Learners will also be equipped with resources that unpack the ability to analyze financial resources, entrepreneurial skills that delve into activities that one can do to generate more revenue, and financial skills which cover income and expenditure management.

Other modules include financial services and debt management skills, ICT in financial transactions to cover mobile money transactions, online banking and e-commerce. 

“This program is very timely as it aligns to our newly unveiled Old Mutual brand, which promises to unlock more opportunities and more value for our customers and communities,” added Arthur Oginga, Old Mutual Group CEO.

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