Digital payment service provider Visa Malaysia has rolled out two new interactive, game-based initiatives to help improve financial literacy among Malaysian youths. These include a local literacy programme that utilises a boardgame, and an educational football-themed video game.

According to Visa, the local financial literacy programme – which is to be made available in ten universities and colleges around Malaysia for – is launched in partnership with a local financial literacy educational institution, GProvision. Primarily, it utilises a personal finance boardgame, Money Quotient, to teach concepts such as money management, investments, loans, tax, and retirement – but will be complemented by educational talks as well.

The programme is set to run for three months, until the end of 2022. It will hopefully enable youths to learn how to make informed decisions with regard to personal finances as they experience real-life simulated scenarios.

Meanwhile, the second initiative involves the global launch of Visa’s upgraded interactive video game, Financial Football, which is based on the National Football League (NFL). Free to play, the fast-paced game was first introduced back in 2005, but was recently updated with new features and challenge modes.

As it was before, the main objective of Financial Football is still to teach the public basic financial literacy knowledge, including budgeting, saving, as well as credit and debt management. Individuals learn these by taking part in football matches, which they win by answering multiple choice as well as true-or-false questions.

Following the latest upgrade, Financial Football now also includes new questions focusing on topics such as cryptocurrencies, as well as the ability to join men’s and women’s teams and tournaments. There is also a second mode designed specifically for small business owners, featuring questions about starting and managing a business, and more. Additionally, the game can now be downloaded for free to play on your computers and phones.

“The launch of Financial Football and the onsite sessions in local universities to conduct financial literacy boardgame sessions will empower young Malaysians to increase their knowledge on money management and help them to be financially savvy when they enter the workforce,” said the country manager for Visa Malaysia, Ng Kong Boon, adding that the gameplay approach is the best way to do so.

Ng also said that the two initiatives are part of Visa’s broader approach in driving financial education among the public. They are also in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023, which aims to promote financial literacy within the country.

Aside from these latest initiatives, Visa Malaysia had also previously launched other game-based efforts, including the financial literacy web game, Mind Your Ringgit.

(Sources: FintechNews Malaysia, BusinessToday)

• TAGS:
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• BNM
• Boardgames
• Financial Football
• Financial Literacy
• Financial Literacy Education
• GProvision
• Money Quotient
• National Football League (NFL)
• National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2019-2023
• Ng Kong Boon
• Visa Malaysia