Advocacy groups are urging government, financial, and education institutions to address the lack of financial literacy among Filipinos amid the massive shift to digital platforms precipitated by the pandemic.
CitizenWatch Philippines convener Atty. Tim Abejo stressed that digital and financial literacy are key to empowering the work force facing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, notably lockdowns that have been recurrent for more than 19 months now.
Abejo explained, “With the pandemic’s devastating effects on our lives, livelihood, and the economy in general, only digital solutions will help our workers cope with the changes and challenges of our time. These would make them survive, and eventually thrive, in the next normal.”
“However,” he added, “ the lack of financial literacy will deprive our work force the opportunity to safely invest their hard-earned money and will be stuck in a vicious cycle of laboring long and hard to catch up with the growing cost of living.”
The 2019 Financial Inclusion Survey by the Bangko Sentral showed that Filipino adults have little understanding of compounding interest and the effect of inflation on the buying power of households more so on investment risks, returns, and diversification. It also showed that Filipinos scored low in long-term financial planning and even daily money management.
In a recent online forum on digital financial platforms for overseas Filipino workers, Senator Joel Villanueva, a former director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and now chairman of two Senate committees—Labor, Employment, and Human Resources Development, as well as Higher, Technical and Vocational Education—emphasized the close link between technology, financial literacy, and job empowerment.
Villanueva also said that OFWs and their families must learn together how to save, invest and set up their own business. “Hindi po pwede na habang buhay ang isang marino, halimbawa, ay nandoon lamang sa barko. (Seafarers cannot stay at sea forever).”
He pointed out that OFWs contribute 12 percent of the country’s national income and remit approximately P3 million a day that can now be safely and conveniently done through available digital remittance platforms.
In a concurring statement, Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute President, Prof. Dindo Manhit said, “Having little knowledge on investing among wage earners here and abroad is a restricting disadvantage that must be reversed by empowering Filipinos with financial skills to manage their money, debt, and expenses and gradually create a culture of investing instead of consumption. Financial literacy should be part of the essential skillsets that our people must learn and practice to create wealth and prosperity in the emerging digital economy,” Manhit said.
On the other hand, consumer advocacy group BK3 (Bantay Konsyumer, Kalsada, Kuryente) Convenor Prof. Louie Montemar said that though consumers are now becoming comfortable going online for transactions, there needs to be a deeper understanding of the risks and opportunities in digital transactions.
Montemar declared, “Filipino consumers need to learn how to maximize the potential of the information and opportunities for making money in a digital marketplace.
We have to change a predominantly consumer mindset to a more entrepreneurial orientation and understand how we can save and invest our earnings wisely,” he said.