JCI motivating youths on financial ethics and morality 

The Junior Chamber International (JCI) is working for development of the young entrepreneurs, leaders, innovations, networking, and community development. Especially, JCI Chittagong is consisting of around 90% of young entrepreneurs aged between 18-40 years. Since its inception as an organisation, JCI Chittagong has been focused on motivating youths on entrepreneurship and also developing financial ethics and morality in youths from an early age.

In an interview with The Business Standard, JCI Chittagong Chapter President Mohammad Ismail Munna shared his views on the importance of upskilling youths in terms of building their financial resilience with ethical habits to secure the nation's financial stability and how JCI is fostering it as a youth chamber.

Ismail joined JCI Chittagong as a general member in 2018 and served as Director in 2021. He was elected secretary general of the organisation in 2022 and elected as vice president in 2023. He came up with bunches of ideas on the present Financial crisis and how youths should be prepared to recover from this disaster. 

What JCI is doing for the young generation?

JCI plays a significant role for young people by supporting them in terms of leadership development, creating entrepreneurship opportunities, and fostering youth regarding personal development through training programs. In 2024, JCI Chittagong started a project named "Projuktite Attonirvor" where we are providing long-term intensive training courses on "ICT freelancing" to fresh female graduates of Chittagong City Corporation College so that they can earn independently by sitting at their home & become self-employed.

What is JCI doing for social responsibilities?

JCI plays a crucial role in promoting social responsibility. After individual development, JCI empowers members to create positive change. This year under community development initiatives JCI Chittagong has executed a project named "Chotomoni Nibash" where we have taken responsibility for 40 orphaned special needs children of an orphaned center under Jila Shomaj Sheba Odhidoptor for the whole year.  

As Chattogram is a business hub, many entrepreneurs here are willful defaulters. What is your organisation doing in this regard?

Bank scams are a serious concern nowadays. Companies embezzling money using political power is a trend in some cases, which sometimes influences younger generations, aspiring them to become rich overnight and start doing illegal practices. We want to start it from the beginning, as we are working with youths and young entrepreneurs. In every general member meeting & training workshop, we motivate our members on ethics and morality in dealing with finance and commitment. We are working with youths, as they should learn to respect the agreements they make with others and the commitments they make to themselves. We organise different financial literacy programmes like budget management to reduce cost, bank borrowing product variation to reduce debt, consequences of defaulting on loans and recognising that every money spent or saved impacts their financial future. In our every meet-up, we encourage our members to respect every financial commitment and try to make them aware that lying about financial transaction or engaging in dishonest financial practices will likely have long-term negative consequences.

What is the priority to solve the financial crisis and sustainable business?

Of course, priority should be given to our current youth's development on financial ethics and morality to shape up our future economy. Today's youth have access to financial markets at an earlier age than previous generations and they should be encouraged to invest with integrity, which means thinking beyond potential profit. Young entrepreneurs should be motivated to avoid those nature of businesses that exploit workers, pollutes our environment and engages unethical practices.

Financial ethics is not just about personal gain but also supporting your community. Youth should be encouraged to share their income for community development from their young age. Young leaders can also serve as a community convoy role, holding local businesses accountable, speaking up & reporting unethical financial practices & creating awareness to the public on recognizing fraudulent activities. It is very important to create strong base of ethical foundation on Youths, as they are the one who will shape & mould the nation economy in years to come.