CAF Addresses Financial Inclusion Challenges at UNSA

CAF—development bank of Latin America—financial inclusion program coordinator Diana Mejía spoke of the challenges facing Peru in terms of increasing financial inclusion at the seminar organized at the San Agustín de Arequipa National University (UNSA), and as part of a program aimed at reinforcing Latin America’s economics schools, which UNSA joined in November 2018.

“Financial inclusion is a key element for the development of countries,” Mejía said. “Indeed, there is ample evidence of the relationship between it and the reduction in the equality gap and poverty, as well as an increased productivity and financial well-being.” She also said that financial inclusion saves people from having to “transact only in cash,” or use their mattress or piggy banks as savings accounts. Mejía added that financial inclusion indeed connects individuals and businesses through the formal financial system, facilitating daily life and enabling them to generate assets, save for retirement, make productive investments and mitigate the effects of crises such as the one currently facing the region.

The CAF-led program—which consists of virtually reinforcing a series of economics schools across Latin America—aims to improve knowledge and the use of conceptual aspects applied to economic theory with the purpose of strengthening the potential of the human capital of university students and teachers. The program is expected to have direct and indirect impacts on participants’ productivity, as well as on the efficiency of public and private management and the contribution of participants to the sustainable development and integration of the country. 

The program complements the face-to-face training offered by UNSA economics courses with online sessions led by highly renowned economists from around the world. Going forward, the scheme will generate a network of public universities across Latin America, which will form a community of economics professionals with high international standards, who will be able to participate in internships between countries of the program, carry out applied research and access virtual libraries, among other academic benefits.  The program is currently being implemented in 13 universities across Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia.