Zambia
Introduction
Nancy Kasamba Ngoma was at an agricultural institute in Zambia to teach digital skills to college students and their lecturers, work she carries out in her professional capacity, when she saw an opening for something more. Rather than treating financial literacy as a separate initiative requiring its own dedicated event, she wove a KAFI financial literacy session directly into the training she was already delivering, using the same room, the same audience, and even the same work branded shirt she wears for her regular professional work.
That decision reflects an approach increasingly common among effective Community Finance Leaders, recognizing that financial literacy does not always need a standalone platform to reach people. Sometimes the most effective entry point is simply attention already gathered for another purpose, repurposed briefly to address a subject participants may never have encountered in a structured way before.
A Curriculum Built for College Life
Ngoma structured her session around four interconnected areas, each chosen with a college aged audience specifically in mind. She began with budgeting, covering both practical guidance on how to approach it and a clear explanation of its benefits, giving students a foundation before moving into more specific financial territory. From there, she addressed savings and debt together, treating them as two sides of the same coin, habits and pitfalls students would need to navigate simultaneously as they moved through college life and toward greater financial independence.
She also introduced entrepreneurship into the discussion, relevant for students at an agricultural institute who may go on to run their own farms, businesses, or agricultural ventures rather than pursuing conventional employment. Finally, she addressed tax and insurance, two topics rarely covered in typical student focused financial discussions, but increasingly relevant as these students prepare to enter the workforce or start businesses of their own.
This combination gave the session a scope broader than a typical introductory budgeting talk, reflecting Ngoma's awareness that college students and their lecturers were not simply managing pocket money, but preparing for financial decisions with real, long term consequences.
Naming the Pressure Students Actually Feel
The feedback shared by participants reveals just how directly Ngoma's session addressed the real financial pressures shaping student life. One participant reflected candidly on the social dynamics driving many students into debt, describing the strong urge among students to show off, a pressure that has pushed many into significant financial trouble. What stood out to this participant was not simply the information shared, but the value of discussing this pressure openly and publicly as a group. That kind of shared, public acknowledgment, the participant noted, made it easier to accept being left out of certain spending patterns and to focus instead on saving.
This reflection points to something financial literacy sessions do not always achieve, addressing not just the mechanics of budgeting, but the underlying social pressure that often drives poor financial decisions in the first place. By creating space to discuss that pressure openly, Ngoma gave students something perhaps more valuable than a budgeting formula, permission to resist a social norm they may have privately recognized as harmful but felt unable to challenge alone.
Practical Tools for Everyday Phones
A second piece of feedback highlighted the practical, applied nature of Ngoma's guidance. A participant expressed appreciation for the suggestions on digital tools that could support budgeting, noting that these recommendations would be genuinely useful given how much time students already spend on their phones. Rather than asking students to adopt an entirely new system or habit disconnected from their existing routines, Ngoma pointed them toward tools that could integrate directly into devices they were already using daily.
This detail reflects a broader strength in Ngoma's approach, meeting participants where their existing habits already are, rather than asking them to build new ones from scratch. Given that the session took place within a digital skills training, it also created a natural, thematic connection between the two subjects, technology and money management, reinforcing for students that digital literacy and financial literacy are not separate domains, but closely related skills that can support one another.
Reframing Tax From Suspicion to Understanding
Perhaps the most striking reflection came from a participant addressing tax directly. This participant admitted to a shift in perspective, explaining that they finally understood why they should stop avoiding tax payments, recognizing that tax actually contributes to the country rather than representing something taken unfairly. The participant candidly described their previous belief, that the country was essentially stealing money and calling it tax, a perception Ngoma's session appears to have meaningfully changed.
This reflection speaks to a gap in financial education that extends well beyond personal budgeting, public understanding of how tax functions and why it matters. For young people preparing to enter the workforce or start businesses, particularly within an agricultural context where formal tax obligations may feel distant or confusing, this kind of clear, honest explanation can shift not just individual compliance, but broader trust in public financial systems.
Financial Literacy Woven Into Professional Work
What makes Ngoma's session distinctive is the setting in which it took place. She did not organize a separate outreach event or ask students to set aside additional time. Instead, she incorporated financial literacy directly into her existing professional responsibilities, delivering it as a natural extension of the digital skills training she was already conducting. This integration suggests a model other Community Finance Leaders balancing professional obligations alongside their KAFI work might find valuable, using established platforms and existing audiences rather than requiring entirely separate opportunities to create meaningful impact.
Reaching both students and their lecturers within the same session also gave the training a layered impact. Lecturers absorbing the same financial lessons alongside their students are well positioned to reinforce those lessons long after Ngoma's specific session has ended, extending the discussion's influence into the institute's ongoing academic environment rather than confining it to a single conversation.
A Session That Addressed More Than Money
Across all three pieces of feedback, a consistent theme emerges, participants were not simply learning new financial facts, they were reconsidering assumptions they had carried for some time. One participant reconsidered the social pressure driving reckless spending among peers. Another discovered practical tools already within reach on a device used every day. A third reconsidered a fundamental civic obligation they had previously viewed with suspicion. Together, these reflections suggest Ngoma's session succeeded in shifting not just financial habits, but the underlying beliefs shaping those habits in the first place.
That kind of impact, reaching beliefs rather than only behaviors, often produces more durable change than technical instruction alone. A student who understands why saving matters socially, and why tax serves a genuine public purpose, is likely to carry that understanding into decisions well beyond the specific budgeting tips shared during a single session.
Extending Reach Through Existing Platforms
As Ngoma continues her work within Cohort 35, her session at the agricultural institute stands as a clear demonstration of how Community Finance Leaders can extend the reach of financial literacy education by embedding it within existing professional platforms rather than treating it as a separate, standalone initiative. By using a training she was already delivering as the vehicle for a broader financial conversation, she reached an audience of college students and lecturers who might not otherwise have encountered this kind of structured discussion about budgeting, debt, entrepreneurship, tax, and insurance in a single sitting.
Report Summary
Nancy Kasamba Ngoma, a Cohort 35 fellow from Zambia, incorporated a KAFI financial literacy session into digital skills training she conducted for college students and lecturers at an agricultural institute. The session covered budgeting and its benefits, savings and debt, entrepreneurship, and tax and insurance, offering a broad financial foundation tailored to a student audience preparing for independent financial life. Participant feedback highlighted the value of discussing social pressure around spending openly, with one participant noting that shared, public conversation made it easier to resist the urge to overspend and focus on saving instead. Another participant welcomed practical digital tool suggestions for budgeting that could be used directly on everyday phones. A third participant described a significant shift in understanding tax, moving from viewing it with suspicion to recognizing its genuine contribution to the country. Ngoma's approach demonstrated how embedding financial literacy within existing professional training can extend its reach, delivering meaningful impact to students and lecturers without requiring a separate, standalone outreach event.
