Luljeta Minxhozi: The importance of educating young people in
Global Money Week
Address by Ms Luljeta Minxhozi, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, to the opening
ceremony of the Global Money Week in Albania, Tirana, 25 March 2019.
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Dear Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports,
Dear Chairman of the Albanian Association of Banks,
Dear students and teachers,
Dear old and new friends of the Bank of Albania,
On this first day of the Global Money Week, I wish you a warm welcome to the central building of
the Bank of Albania and thank you for participating and engaging in our activities.
This is the 12th year the Bank of Albania engages, like many other central banks across the
world, in financial education efforts for the public in general, with a particular focus on the young
generation. This marks also the sixth year of Bank of Albania's engagement as the organiser of
the Money Week.
This has become an annual meeting place for all stakeholders having an interest in this beautiful
and important, at the same time complicated and challenging field. Like many other central
banks, the Bank of Albania has assumed a proactive role in enhancing financial literacy. This
commitment is fully in line with the spirit of transparency toward the public and raising its
awareness on economic and financial issues, which have an impact on the day-to-day living for
each and every one of us.
Over these 12 years, with support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the
Albanian Association of Banks, numerous educational activities and projects have been designed
and implemented. They have been tailored to target different age groups, and consist of a variety
of activities such as training for teachers and journalists, brochures for the general public,
dedicated programmes for high schools, such as the "Personal Finance in Your Hands", the
educational package for the elementary schools and the Albanian Money app.
The Museum of the Bank of Albania reflects perfectly our efforts for enhancing knowledge about
money. The multifunctional Museum provides visitors with a platform that helps them to learn
about the monetary history in Albania, as well as the functions and importance of the central
bank, and to become more financially literate.
The Money Week is a global celebration campaign built to inspire children and young people to
learn about money matters, livelihoods and entrepreneurship, hence becoming responsible and
financially capable citizens in the future.
Starting today, the Money Week will be celebrated in 169 countries across the world, until 31
March 2019. This is a Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) initiative, with the support of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and over 53 thousand
institutions and organisations and over 32 million children and young people participate in this
year's edition.
The slogan for this year is 'Learn.Save.Earn.' Around this slogan, partner institutions organise
awareness-raising and educational activities. As active participants in the Money Week activities,
we have chosen to focus on educating the young people and encouraging them not to use the
outdated terms "new lek" - "old lek" in our day-to-day financial interactions.
Our slogan for this year is "Too young to speak in old lek"
This is the overarching theme for most of our contest categories. I take this opportunity to thank,
on behalf of the Bank of Albania, all the participants and I exhort them to be an active part in the
efforts for eliminating such outdated terminology.
The Bank of Albania, with long-standing support from the Albanian Association of Banks, and the
precious support from the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, will organise a series of
awareness-raising activities for children and young people on such topics. Thus, during the
Week, a number of activities will be organised such as lectures, contests, visits to commercial
banks and the Museum of the Bank of Albania, aimed at involving as many students as possible.
In all educational activities of the Bank of Albania, including these contests, we appreciate and
encourage inspiration, originality and proactive thinking.
The submitted projects for all the categories, whose winners are present today, feature all these
elements. I take this opportunity to personally congratulate all of them for their qualitative works
presented during the submission phase. Their work and engagement are a source of constant
inspiration for the Bank of Albania to introduce increasingly ambitious projects.
The projects category targeted sixth graders, the photomontage category targeted ninth graders
and the videos category targeted high-school students. The participation rate was very high, with
around 340 students from 40 schools.
I would like to extend my special thanks to the teachers and professors, whose commitment and
passion is a key and necessary element for the realisation of these educational projects.
Lastly, I would like to thank you all for the insofar commitment, and invite all the participating
institutions to continue the cooperation in the future, with a view to advancing our financial
education efforts for the children and young people, contributing, in turn, to the livelihood of the
society in Albania.
Thank You!