Sixty-three graduate from ECIB financial course

Lending agencies have been encouraged to find innovative ways of facilitating the financial needs of youths and women.

Describing them as two sectors of our society that are discriminated against, Dr Jules Ferdinand, CEO of the Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC) said that lending agencies must attempt to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in these sectors of society.{{more}}

Dr Ferdinand was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Eastern Caribbean Institute of Banking (ECIB), and the University of the West Indies (UWI)’s Savings and Investment Course, last Friday, July 27th at the Aquatic Club.

Sixty-three students graduated from the pilot 10-week course in which they focused on areas such as personal financial planning, debt management, risk management strategies and trading on the securities market.

Dr Ferdinand challenged the students, who were drawn from financial agencies, private business houses, and the public service, to be catalysts for a change.

“Risk aversion is a disease that continues to cripple many of our establishments, you are expected to be disciples of change in this regard,” Dr Ferdinand said.

President of the ECIB, Errol Allen told the participants that their course was just the first of the ECIB’s plan to provide financial education in Eastern Caribbean countries.

Allen said that there is a higher-level course that is in the works and encouraged the graduates to register for it, when it comes on stream.

Resident representative of the ECIB, Elritha Dick, had high praise for the attitude and hard work of the students while local co-coordinator Cheryl Rodriguez announced that the course will resume on August 17th.

She told SEARCHLIGHT that she had already received 40 applicants for the course.

The course is scheduled to be a quarterly one and started in the other ECCB territories two years ago. (KJ)