PMA Concludes Activities of the Child and Youth Banking Week 2015
The PMA concluded the activities of the Child and Youth Banking Week 2015, which were held over 5 days and included the reception of school students by bank branches and the visits of bank representatives to around 1600 schools in order to reach 60000 eight-graders comprising the segment targeted by these visits. The visits aimed at delivering a presentation on financial and banking services and their significance, so as to promote savings and investment concepts and awareness within that targeted segment, answer student enquiries and distribute educational pamphlets to students.
The Governor of the PMA, Dr Jihad Al Wazir, the Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education (MoE), Mr. Mohammed Abu Zaid, the representative of the UNRWA Education Programme, Mr Hani Al Omari and the Chairman of the Association of Banks in Palestine (ABP), Mr Joseph Nesnas, had announced the launch of the activities of the Fourth Banking Week 2015 last Sunday at the Girls Spanish School in the city of Al Bireh. The launch was attended eighth-grade students from the school and from the Boys Al Mustaqbal School, to bolster financial awareness-raising of this financially-significant student-segment.
Within this framework, bank branches received their youth and child guests who were accompanied by their teachers and parents. Using a number of entertaining methods including “learn through play”, the guests were introduced to the nature of banking operations and services offered, including the use of ATMs, deposit and withdrawal, the mechanism of opening an account and its benefits, in particular the savings account, and an introduction to the safety deposit box services.
Dr Al Wazir expressed his happiness with the success achieved by the activities of the Banking Week for this year, which aimed at reinforcing the financial and banking literacy across the widest possible social segments; particularly the youth and children in order to help them prepare and be ready to judiciously craft their own financial and economic future. Dr Al Wazir also commended the local media for the coverage of these activities.
It is worth mentioning that, since it launched its initiative in 2012, the PMA has given special attention to the Banking Week which takes place concomitantly with the activities of the annual Global Child and Youth Week on March 16 of every year. In view of its success in promoting financial literacy and awareness of the targeted segments, the PMA is currently contemplating boosting the event in the coming years by declaring a day within the Banking Week as National Savings Day, to which banks would contribute by encouraging savings and investment activities by the targeted segment. To this year’s activities, the PMA has added the reception of a group of its employees’ children aged 10 and up, in Ramallah and Gaza, with the aim of promoting the children’s financial and banking awareness, considering they fall within the targeted segment.
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