New Zealand Financial Literacy Resources Amongst Best In The World

Concern over the lack of teaching financial literacy in schools has resulted in the development of several world class personal finance programs for children in New Zealand.

Both MoneyTime and Banqer High were finalists in the Best Non-financial Services Company at the inaugural Money Inclusion and Awareness Award (MAIA) awards earlier this week, with MoneyTime being awarded runner up in what judges considered was the most tightly contested category of the evening. The winner of the category was MoneyPrep, a children’s program from Canada.

Neil Edmond, CEO of MoneyTime, says he was alarmed to learn his children had not been taught financial literacy at school. “I just assumed they would be. Money management is such an important skill that affects the life outcomes of every single child.”

A former marketing consultant, Edmond set about researching financial literacy programs for kids and, not finding anything satisfactory, decided to create his own. His company launched MoneyTime in 2018 and with the program now in nearly half of all year 7 and 8 schools in New Zealand, they turned their attention offshore.

“MoneyTime clearly filled a gap for Kiwi teachers, we signed up 40 schools in the first two weeks. However, as time went on, I confirmed a hunch that the lack of financial literacy in children is a global issue, so early in 2020 we started marketing the program internationally. We now have MoneyTime being used in schools and in homes in South Africa, Australia and the US.”

The MAIA awards, based in Singapore, were created out of the same concern that people are not being taught about money. In the preamble to the presentations, it was noted that at least of the planet are financially illiterate. Examples it gave include of US teens not knowing the difference between a credit card and a debit card, close to half of all Indonesians having just a 7 day financial cushion and of the people in Spain having their savings in a current account.

“We’re doing better than that here in New Zealand” Edmond says, “But there is a long way to go before financial education is treated as seriously as subjects like literacy and mathematics in schools. It’s just as important to children’s life outcomes, it really needs to be a stand-alone subject in the curriculum.”

Edmond thinks that with the quality of the backers, the professionalism of the awards and the quality of the entrants, the MAIAs will become the global gold standard for financial literacy.

“There were some really impressive initiatives, with 150 entries from all over the world. We are excited to know we are up there with the best of them. Runner up motivates us to go one better next year” he says.

MoneyTime’s award is on the back of another international award it received recently, for Children's Education Program of the Year, Financial Responsibility & Decision Making, presented by The Institute for Financial Literacy.

The award was announced at the 16th Annual Excellence In Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards (www.EIFLEawards.org) on April 25, 2022 during the Annual Conference on Financial Education in the US. The EIFLE Awards were created in 2007 to acknowledge innovation, dedication and the commitment of individuals and organizations that are advancing financial literacy education worldwide.

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