PETALING JAYA, Dec 14 — Malaysians are falling into the debt trap because of poor financial planning, according to Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK).
It said as of October, 298,309 individuals had signed up with it for financial counselling.
From that figure, 117,565 individuals had enrolled in the agency’s Debt Management Programme (DMP) and 22.7 per cent of them had poor financial planning.
From January to October, 70,656 men, 35,123 women, including 2,388 individuals, enrolled for the programme. A total of 17,892 applicants were between the ages of 20 and 30; 30 and 40 (42,907); and 40 and above (47,368).
The agency’s records also found 81,150 of the applicants were married, 16,159 single and 4,809 divorced.
As of Oct 31, 6,440 cases were successfully exited from DMP with a total outstanding of RM261.7 million and 70,524 active accounts in the DMP has a total portfolio of RM5.8 billion.
AKPK chief executive officer Azaddin Ngah Tasir said: “We are placing specific emphasis on the younger generation to reduce the likelihood of them getting into the debt trap.
“The financial education initiatives adopt the life event approach including tertiary, entering the workforce, starting and raising a family
as well as retirement.”
Azaddin said the agency would engage the groups through collaborations with various stakeholders and skew the learning process towards self-directed learning through apps, knowledge centres as well as talks, seminars, road shows and exhibitions.
“Our free of charge services are provided with the intent to ensure the public is handling their finances effectively,” he said.
