As an integrated retailer and flexible payment provider, we recognise the role we play in supporting our customers, colleagues and workers in our supply chains better understand their financial situation. Therefore, financial literacy forms a key pillar of our approach to sustainability.
In our supply chain we continue to build on our successful training programmes in Bangladesh which includes financial literacy training for workers. The programmes we have delivered have encouraged the predominantly female workforce to open their own bank accounts so that they can plan better and understand the benefits of saving part of their income.
Helping the workers to create their own budgets gave them a clearer understanding of their income versus expenditure, improving their ability to manage their finances.
Through our network of community centres in India, we continued to offer financial literacy training to young women and their families, enabling them to understand budgets and better manage their finances.
We have also spent the last year mapping out a programme to engage young people in the UK and Ireland on financial literacy through lessons at school to ensure they are equipped to make informed financial decisions. The programme ties into a broader business commitment to make financial support and information more accessible to our customers and colleagues to help them to better understand the services that we provide.