Mobile gaming app about farming wins top prize in Temasek, Financial Times financial literacy competition

SINGAPORE: When she was in secondary school, Ms Ng Xin Mei, 24, felt lost when it came to managing her personal finances.

“There were a few financial literacy workshops, but they were only for a few hours and I don’t think they were very detailed,” she said, adding that she wished there were more in-depth workshops where she could properly discuss the topic with her peers.

Fast forward to Saturday (Oct 19), the second-year accountancy student from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was part of the winning team in the Temasek-Financial Times Challenge, with each member in the five-person team taking home S$5,000 (US$3,800).

The competition involved Singapore residents aged 17 to 24, and was organised as part of activities to mark Temasek’s 50th anniversary.

It aimed to help tertiary students and early career professionals understand and address financial issues facing young adults as they enter the workforce.

Following an initial series of online modules and quizzes, 75 finalists were selected for the finale at Temasek’s headquarters in Orchard Road.

They were split into 15 teams, which had to solve a real-world problem, creating financial literacy campaigns targeted at secondary school students.

This was in line with the Ministry of Education’s commitment to introduce financial literacy education in schools, incorporating it into the Character and Citizenship Education and Food and Consumer Education curricula.

A final five teams were then selected to present their proposals to a panel of five judges.

SOLVING REAL WORLD CHALLENGE

The winning pitch by Ms Ng’s team was a financial literacy app called SavvySprouts, which gets users to check in daily, following a character as it makes financial choices. It gamifies the learning of the concept of investment, through a farming narrative.

“It’s kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure,” said her teammate Han Mingwei, 22.

The app involves the use of in-game currencies, with which users can purchase seeds of different plants such as apple trees, she said.

“This helps them draw links from the plants to real-world investments, such as stocks, bonds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds),” explained the final-year student at NTU’s School of Art Design and Media.

The plan was to get secondary school students to download the app when they enter Secondary 1, and continue using it throughout their secondary school life until they graduate and possibly even beyond that, said Ms Han.

Ms Ng said she hopes that the app her team pitched could one day become a reality.

“If I was a secondary school student now and I was given the opportunity to learn all these, which I did not previously, I would be quite happy because I start to learn about investing and savings at a very young age,” she said.

DEDICATION TO FINANCE LITERACY

When asked why she was taking part in the competition even though it was a very different field from what she was studying, Ms Han said she found the concept of the competition fun and also wanted to prepare herself for her next stage of life.

“I’m in my final year already so I’m almost graduating, and I’m actually trying to learn more about personal finances, like investments and all,” she added.

In her closing remarks, Ms Kimberley Lim, operations manager for strategic partnerships at the Financial Times, said the participants in the competition “represent some of the best up-and-coming young talent in Singapore”.

“’I’m really excited to see what you guys do next. Best of luck with all your next personal finance decisions in life,” she said.

Mr Chris Teo, Temasek’s director of public affairs, noted the participants’ efforts in coming down to take part in the event even though it was a Saturday, along with the completion of the series of online modules and quizzes they had to complete beforehand.

“The fact that they put in so much time, energy and effort, shows their keen interest and the passion they have for this topic,” said Mr Teo, who was one of the judges for the competition.