Bandar Seri Begawan - As part of the Community Outreach Programme (COP) by the officers of 31st Executive Development Program for Middle Management (31st EDP MMO) organised by Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Group 5 ($et for Life) has launched a financial literacy platform in collaboration with Big BWN Project, a non-profit organization and Mr Kelvin Pong Ming Onn, a Financial Consultant from BR-Kelvin Pong. The project took off as a two-day workshop on 11 and 18 February 2022, adhering to the Ministry of Health’s Standard Operating Procedure guidelines. The workshops were held at the iCentre Auditorium, Darussalam Enterprise (DARe), targeting to educate youth on cash management.
Participants were imparted with financial tools that could be implemented to manage their income and finance effectively in the short and long term. During the workshops, participants had the opportunities to outline their current financial situation and were guided through important concepts in financial literacy such as emergency fund, financial priorities and goals, debit and credit management, and developing a personalized cash management and budgeting plans.
The main objective of this COP is to provide a sustainable platform to continuously educate the community on sustaining financial well-being through effective income and financial management, hence, improve capability in financial decisions. This is in line with the recent khutbah on 4 February 2022 titled “Wisdom in Financial Management”, and on 21 January 2022 titled “The Obligation to Settle Debts”, in which both highlighted the importance of managing income and expenditure properly, that is, in moderation. In general, financial literacy supports the implementation of Maqasid Al-Syariah, particularly on the aspect of “Preservation and Promotion of Wealth”.
To sustain this COP initiative further, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Mr Kelvin Pong Ming Onn, Founder of BR-Kelvin Pong and Dyg Noorhafizah binti Haji Rashid, Director of Big BWN Project, to ensure that the workshop will be continuously carried out annually for the next five years under the flagship of Big BWN Project. The progression of the annual participants will be surveilled by Mr Kelvin Pong Ming Onn to ensure the effectiveness of the tools implemented, as their contribution to the National Financial Literacy effort.
