Promoting financial literacy for nation’s students

This year’s competition was held under a space exploration theme

Visa, the world leader in digital payments, and the association last Friday launched the ninth annual financial literacy programme, with support of Vietnam’s leading fund manager VinaCapital, to provide financial management skills to young people across the country.

The annual initiative provides student entrepreneurs with many of the financial management skills required to run a successful startup. A space exploration theme will be used this time around to add to the excitement as students take on the role of astronauts on a journey through space on a mission to achieve their startup pursuits.

The format will see students forming teams of three to develop their ideas and pitch their business plans to a panel of judges with a chance to win prizes totalling VND110 million ($4,800).

With its annual financial literacy programme, Visa fosters students’ skills

A series of challenges will see the student business plans orbiting back to Earth, with Visa representing the central “space station” that will provide students with crucial funding for their startup concepts, in addition to other expert resources in the form of an online Survival Toolkit.

The toolkit features a “Capital Detecting Radar”, advising on everything from self-funding to loans and investment; an “Expenses Steering Wheel”, helping students to navigate cashflow and business expenses; and a “Risk Mitigating Shield” which will drive participants to evaluate threats to the business, including resource management and information security.

Among the highly valuable resources offered to participants, shortlisted candidates are to be offered a rare opportunity to receive one-to-one support from industry leaders and field experts.

The seven most convincing ideas will be selected by a panel of judges to advance to the next rounds. The competition will span six weeks with each round involving funding sponsorship, cash prizes, and other rewards such as field trips and exclusive access to business leaders.

The programme will culminate in the competition’s finale event on December 18, during which the winning team will be awarded VND60million ($2,600) in investment funding towards their startup idea.

“This year’s programme aims to build on the success of previous years as we work to provide lifelong financial skills to the people of Vietnam,” said Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa country manager for Vietnam and Laos. “We continue to be encouraged by the diversity and high standard of student submissions and we look forward to seeing how the context of a startup can be applied to developing strong financial literacy among students and inspire the next generation of business innovators.”