Children should begin learning about saving and investment while they are still young, as businesses and financial institutions are being urged to consider how their decisions affect children's lives and future opportunities.

The call was made during Rwanda's first Ring the Bell for Children event, where officials, investors, businesses and development partners discussed the role of financial education in helping children understand money and the need to include their interests in investment decisions.

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UNICEF Country Representative Lieke van de Wiel, said financial literacy should be introduced in schools from an early age, with lessons adjusted to children&039;s levels of understanding.

She said young children could learn the basics of saving through simple, playful activities, while adolescents could be taught how to manage money, plan their finances and make informed decisions.

"Early exposure to financial knowledge is important because children cannot make sound financial decisions without first understanding how money works and in order to start early, they need to have the knowledge,” she said.

Van de Wiel said financial education should not be limited to teaching children how to save, but should also help them understand how to use money responsibly as they grow older.

For individuals and families, she added, financial independence can make it easier to make decisions about education, food and other needs.

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Pierre-Célestin Rwabukumba, the Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE), said the exchange wants children and young people to understand that investment is not reserved for people with large amounts of money.

"People are not really fully aware that investment is not about people who have more money. It&039;s about people changing their mindset about savings and starting to invest little by little,” he said.

He explained that saving and investment are closely connected, and that financial literacy helps people understand how to manage their money, read financial statements and make use of available investment opportunities.

Rwabukumba said the exchange also wants to encourage entrepreneurship among young people, particularly because not everyone will secure a job.

"The jobs are limited. So people have to broaden their mind and start thinking and knowing that you can create your own thing, and at the early age the better,” he said.

He said understanding finance can help young people manage their savings and, eventually, use available resources to establish businesses or pursue professional opportunities.

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The exchange works with schools, youth groups, women, entrepreneurs and other institutions to promote financial literacy. Rwabukumba said the Ring the Bell for Children initiative would become an annual activity, with financial education and entrepreneurship programmes continuing beyond the ceremony.

He said the first event in Rwanda was organised in partnership with UNICEF as part of a wider initiative led by the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE).

While encouraging children to understand investment, speakers also called on businesses and investors to consider how the decisions they make today affect children, even when children are not directly involved in those decisions.

Mireille Batamuliza, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), said children are affected by decisions made in corporate boardrooms, although they rarely have a voice in those discussions.

"Every hiring policy, every supply chain, every product and every investment decision touches a child directly or indirectly,” she said.

She urged banks and investors to consider the impact on children before financing, leasing or investing in businesses. Companies, she added, should examine their operations, adopt family-friendly policies and report on how their activities affect children's well-being.

Batamuliza said investment in children's health, nutrition and learning should not be viewed only as a social responsibility, but also as an investment in future productivity, innovation and economic stability.

"A healthy, skilled generation is tomorrow's productivity, tomorrow's innovation and tomorrow's stable market,” she said.

She also called on businesses to measure and report their actions, urging participants to leave the meeting with a specific commitment and a partner to help implement it. She proposed that they meet again within a year to review progress.

The event was held under the theme "My Day. My Rights. My Future,” and forms part of UNICEF's Child-Lens Investing approach, which encourages businesses and investors to integrate children's rights and well-being into their decisions.

The approach recognises children as a distinct group of stakeholders whose interests can be affected by where companies invest, the products they make, the people they employ and the conditions in which they operate.