AFI’s African Regional Office has held training sessions in Abidjan, designed to build the general public’s awareness of how to manage their personal finances.

The sessions, offered to support staff (security officers, electricians, plumbers, firefighters, elevator operators, refrigeration installation technicians and administrative assistants) working within the AFI office building, served as a pilot to test training materials developed by the Ministry of Finance and Budget of Côte d’Ivoire, under the country’s National Financial Education Programme.

The training covered a wide range of topics:

• Financial goals setting
• Financial planning: identifying sources of income and listing personal expenses
• Expenses prioritization
• Budgeting: personal monthly budgets
• Budget monitoring
• Developing personal discipline and managing community expectations

Feedback from course participants was that the concepts and tools shared during the training would greatly help them reduce the risk and impact of over-indebtedness. The AFI team also used the opportunity to raise awareness of financial inclusion, and of AFI’s activities.