Press Release by the Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights: ĠEMMA offering more financial capability programmes
Reference Number: PR210383
ĠEMMA, the government’s financial capability team, is teaming up with the Chamber of SMEs to introduce a programme directed towards self-employed persons and small business owners to coach them on financial capability matters.
The national strategy on financial capability identified self-employed persons as a vulnerable group. This stems from a number of reasons which include difficulties in separate business and family expenses, knowledge on tax and social security contributions administration, and long-term retirement plans.
Minister for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights Michael Falzon announced this seventh memorandum of understanding which the ministry has entered into with important stakeholders for the inculcation of financial capability.
The minister underlined that, “It is recognised by both the EU and the OECD that an absence of financial capability knowledge directly results in an increase in poverty” and that, “ In September 2020, through the Capital Markets Union Action Plan the Commission recommended a number of measures for increasing financial capability literacy, including the development of a financial competence framework and learning measures supporting the financial education of consumers.”
Minister Falzon emphasised that this memorandum of understanding with the Chamber of SMEs is another important initiative that government has embarked upon to further improve the level of financial capability in Malta.
Mark Mus, the ministry’s permanent secretary, stated that the ministry approached the Chamber of SMEs to see whether together they can adopt this concept for the provision of financial capability coaching for self-employed persons, as for them, self-employed persons are considered a vulnerable group.
The ministry’s financial capability platform can be viewed on: https://gemma.gov.mt