Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of Prudential in Asia and Africa, Prudential Life Insurance Ghana (“Prudential Life”), a leading insurer in the country and JA Ghana, a member of JA Worldwide, one of the world’s largest global, non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young people to own their economic success, collaborated to support Global Money Week (GMW) 2021 as part of Prudential’s purpose to help people get the most out of life by protecting and enhancing their health and financial wellbeing.

GMW is an annual global awareness-raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people, from an early age, are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience. GWM 2021 took place from 22nd to 28th of March this year under the theme “Take care of yourself, take care of your money”, highlighting the importance of building financial resilience and staying healthy in these current times.

Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation said “GMW’s goals are in line with our ambition for Cha-Ching to help close the financial literacy gap across Asia and Africa by providing practical and engaging tools and resources to children, parents and teachers. GWM’s official slogan “Learn. Save. Earn.” is also fully aligned with Cha-Ching’s mission to instil sound financial habits and foster financial responsibility in young children through the concepts of Earn, Save, Spend and Donate.”

Cha-Ching is an award-winning financial literacy programme developed by Prudence Foundation and created in partnership with the Cartoon Network, the leading children’s channel in Asia Pacific, and Dr. Alice Wilder, an expert in educational and child psychology. The program has been adapted by JA into a Primary School curriculum and divided into six lesson plans, for one hour each over a six-week period and has been taught in Ghana over the last five years by volunteers from Prudential Life and JA Ghana, reaching over 20 schools and benefitting 2,500 students.

In 2020, Prudence Foundation launched “Cha-Ching Kid$ at Home” an e-learning version of the Cha-Ching program via www.cha-ching.com, giving parents unlimited access to guides and daily challenges to help teach key money management concepts to their children at home amid the pandemic and social distancing measures.

Activities undertaken during the GMW celebrations included a TV interview, a social media campaign that provided daily tips on money management and 30-second videos of young people speaking about money matters. Prudential Life, JA Ghana, the UK Ghana Chamber of Commerce and CAL Bank also collaborated to organize a webinar around the GMW theme. The webinar’s panellists discussed the importance of financial literacy amongst young people and the opportunities available for building financial resilience for families. In addition, Young Ruler Magazines which feature Cha-Ching comics were distributed to eight children libraries and 20 basic schools across the country.

Emmanuel Mokobi Aryee, CEO of Prudential Life Insurance Ghana said, “Low literacy levels coupled with the low savings culture in Ghana negatively impacts households and ultimately national development. Prudential Life is passionate about improving the lives of young people through education and is happy to have the Cha-Ching program help with developing the right attitudes in young people towards money management”

Abeiku Greene, Executive Director of JA Ghana said “The need for financial literacy, career counselling and job readiness training transcends political, geographic and socio-economic barriers. Our partnership with Prudence Foundation and Prudential Life ensures that the Cha-Ching experience provides students with early exposure to skills needed to make wise financial choices in their day-to-day lives and in the future. JA Ghana believes that in order for children to grow up to be financially responsible adults, they need early financially literacy”.