The South African Savings Institute (SASI) brings you Savings Month which, this year, takes place from the end of July, overlapping into August. Savings Month is SASI’s flagship event for the national savings awareness campaign which hopes to:
- Promote debate around key aspects of saving;
- Raise awareness of the benefits of short, medium and long term planning;
- Build relationships with key partners to leverage future opportunities;
- Foster a culture of saving within a local and international context; and
- Complement the messaging being generated through the social security and retirement reform process, to make it meaningful and relevant to the youth as well.
The recent global crisis has left many financially wounded. South Africa lost almost one million jobs, crippling households, businesses and bringing down the country’s growth levels for the period. The job losses translated into constrained household savings as people’s disposable incomes reduced substantially amidst high debt, rising dependencies as unemployment rose. Thus, while the recession is behind us, many households and businesses remain liquidity trapped as they struggle to adjust their balance sheets. Add to this, the electricity hikes, high food prices, etc, and the challenge to gain financial freedom gets even more difficult!
This year, in recognition of the historic FIFA Soccer World Cup event on South Africa’s shores, the Savings Month will be launched on Tuesday 20 July 2010, after the finals take place. SASI will give special focus to soccer players who will receive financial literacy lessons as part of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Legacy Project. Thus the theme for this year’s National Savings Month is “Save for the Goal – the Path to Recovery”.
A number of initiatives have been planned to highlight the need to improve our savings rate and the path to financial recovery: Sports-Financial Literacy campaign, Varsity Financial Literacy campaign, Community Savings and Entrepreneurial campaign, Teach Children to Save South Africa and an Annual Savings Workshop, co-hosted by SASI and Old Mutual.