Sri Lanka accelerates financial literacy drive amid scams

by Sanath Nanayakkare

CFA Society Sri Lanka launched a financial literacy publication authored by Ravi Abeysuriya, CFA, Advocacy Chair of CFA Society Sri Lanka, at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday.

The chief guest Ms. K M A N Daulagala, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), rang the market opening bell during the event marking another milestone of Sri Lanka’s ongoing endeavors, aiming at minimizing the risk of the public being deceived by investment schemes offered by untrustworthy and fake financial institutions and individuals.

By producing and distributing this book across universities and schools across the country, CFA Society and CSE hope to improve financial literacy rates in Sri Lanka so that people can make better, well-informed, choices when it comes to their finances and also be protected against unscrupulous operators in the financial space.

Ravi Abeysuriya speaking at the event said that the book authored by him gives general public the basic knowledge they need to understand the real opportunities in business, actual risks involved in investments and ways to take control of their financial future.

“The book extensively covers topics such as how to achieve financial independence and wealth, personal financial planning, understanding how to borrow smart, how to be prepared for unexpected turns of business and economic events etc”, he said.

“I request all corporates to do their utmost to improve financial literacy among the adult population in Sri Lanka as part of their CSR activities. When their employees have less financial burdens through better management of their personnel finances, the employers will have a satisfied workforce, and that will be a win-win situation for both employers and the employees. I also request policymakers and university academia present here to take their financial literacy drive from the universities to the schools throughout the country.”

“Economic literacy is also a vital element the people should know about. Due to lack of economic literacy, people in Sri Lanka didn’t question the viability of economic decisions made by the successive governments. Only after the sovereign debt crisis hit the country, our voters realized the damage caused to the economy by politicians through their wrong economic decisions and policies pursued in the past decades. So not only financial literacy, economic literacy also should take enough space in our discussions to liberate the national economy while getting people emancipated from financial scams taking place at various levels.”