Visa brings Financial Football to Vietnam

Harnessing the popularity of the world’s most popular sport, Visa is helping to teach financial concepts with Financial Football, a fast-paced, interactive online video game that seeks to engage students and young adults.

“The Visa Financial Football online game is the highlight of this year’s financial literacy programme as it will tap into the Vietnamese love of the sport, entertaining as it teaches Vietnamese youth the fundamentals of finance. This is the first-ever Vietnamese version of the Financial Football game, which has been rolled out in more than 35 countries,” said Sean Preston, vice president of Visa in Southeast Asia.

“We are very pleased to be commencing our third year of the Practical Money Skills programme in Vietnam, and to be continuing our partnership with the CCVSA, who have been invaluable in helping us reach out to educate students across the country. This year’s programme will see a major focus on using social media channels to connect more closely with students and in turn, allowing students to network and share with their peers online,” added Preston.

From June to August, students will be able to go online to play Financial Football and post their scores on Facebook, with prizes being awarded weekly to the best competitors. Students will also be encouraged to promote the game to their peers through social media.

A range of resources will be available across student-run Facebook fanpages, and Youtube channels, teaching them how to budget, save and spend responsibly. The official programme website continues to provide useful advice from programme mascot Pocket, together with handy financial formulas and other tools. Students are encouraged to use these online forums to speak about their own experiences and share ideas on managing their money.

In September, when the new school term begins, students will have the chance to compete in their own “Financial Football Cup” tournaments on-campus as they go head-to-head in Financial Football tournaments at universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi, with a number of prizes up for grabs.

Students from the National Economics University of Hanoi, who were crowned “Young Financial Literacy Champions” in the 2013 Practical Money Skills programme, will take an active leadership role in this year’s programme. The students will help to manage and promote the programme to universities across the country, while sharing their experiences online with other students through Facebook.

The 2013 Practical Money Skills campaign saw teams of students from universities in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi competing against one another to develop the most creative plans to teach their peers about personal money management.

“It is heartening to see how our financial literacy outreach programmes in Vietnam have come a long way as we continue to reach out to more students in Danang this year. The economy in Vietnam is growing rapidly, hence it is important to arm Vietnamese students with sound financial education before they enter the workforce so they can sustainably manage their own financial affairs,” Preston said.

Last year, Visa and the CCVSA signed a three-year memorandum of understanding to deliver financial education programmes to students in Vietnam. Since 2012, Visa and the CCVSA have jointly organised road shows to promote financial literacy awareness and to teach students the basic concepts of spending responsibly while learning to save and budget wisely.