‘Love in the Market’ charity ball, an annual fundraising activity in support of training tertiary students and other youth groups in forex trading, was held successfully.
The initiative, which is a flagship programme of Women in Forex under the Elevate Ghana Forex Project, has over the past three years raised funds to train over 1,000 students annually across the various technical and public universities in the country.
President of Women in Forex, Gifty Annor-Sika Asantewaa, speaking at the charity ball, mentioned that the project’s mission to train over 10,000 youths across the regions by 2030 is on course and progressing steadily; hence, the need for more corporate bodies and benevolent individuals alike to support the initiative of equipping the youth with the requisite skills to trade.
“The Elevate Ghana Forex Project has a lot of activities to carry out this year; we still have the target to train about 1,000 youth across the 16 regions and in tertiary schools. Our major emphasis this year is on women. We want to train more women in forex trading and financial literacy as a whole.
“Most of the things we have done in the past have been self-sponsored, but the task is getting bigger and so we will be glad to get some more corporate support to equip the youth with forex skills which are relevant in this digital era,” she said.
She expressed optimism that by equipping these tertiary students with trading expertise, they can take advantage of the global forex market and potentially generate income to support themselves in school and their families.
Head, Electronic Banking, Universal Merchant Bank, Dr. Myles Christian Hagan, stated that the need to create an enabling environment for the youth to thrive in the digital space cannot be overemphasised, and initiatives such as providing the needed digital skills in schools like Forex trading skills are important now.
Promoting financial literacy
Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting and investing, among others. Understanding finances and being well-versed in money management is an essential life skill often overlooked in traditional education systems.
Therefore, by focusing on financial literacy, the Elevate Project aims to educate and empower young people to make informed financial decisions, whether in trading or personal finance.
This year’s ‘Love in the Market’ was held under the theme ‘Digital Finance, A Boom or Doom to the African Economy’. Touching on this theme, Sika mentioned that the recent network disruptions that sent shock waves through the financial sector are an indication that the digital space is far from becoming a boom.
Proposing possible solutions to address the situation, she emphasised the need for urgent investment in robust basic infrastructure to support the digital finance ecosystem in Ghana and the African continent.
“Digital finance in general is a boom for every economy globally. However, we don’t have the fundamentals; thus, enough infrastructure in terms of robust data connectivity, strength and stability. What happened with the Internet recently left banks, forex traders and lots of businesses that depend on the Internet to operate lacking.
“If we can sustain a robust infrastructure for digitalisation, we will have more booms than dooms; but now, I think we are in the doom,” she said.
