Singapore, Singapore Jun 3, 2024 (Issuewire.com) – Following deliberations by an international panel of expert judges, the MAIAs are proud to announce the winners, runners-up, and special commendations for this year’s Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards.

Said co-founder Michael Gilmore, “With a record number of entries from 35 different countries this year, it’s clear how important learning about money is becoming to everybody in all corners of the planet. We had winning entries from New Zealand to the UK to the USA, and incredibly strong entries from Spain to Colombia and from Vietnam to Morocco. Poor financial literacy is a truly global problem, and we are finding answers all over the world.”

The number of winners increased from 16 last year to 17 this year, as the judges of the previously problematic “Blockchain Education” category finally found an entry they believed worthy of scoring top points, submitted by Aflatoun International, a global NGO based in the Netherlands.

There was once again a tie in the book category, and once again between books from the UK and Australia, with London-based financial therapist Vicky Reynal’s “Money on Your Mind” sharing the spoils with Australia’s Ana Kresina’s “Kids Ain’t Cheap“. The judges were also very pleased to award “Wellness Financiero” by Jordi Martinez-Llorente, the first non-English language book the MAIAs has judged, a special commendation.

Other notable winners include the Financial Times’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign, FT FLIC, in the hotly-contested “Non-profit for school-age” category, for its work at the City of London Academy, and MyBnk for “The Money House Glasgow”.

The importance of financial literacy and inclusion to emerging economies also shone through as South East Asia boasted three winners, Braden Cobb from Singapore along with Finco and MADCash from Malaysia, the latter being the only project this year to win two categories. Veronica Frisancho from Peru also won the best academic paper category with her incredibly powerful work looking at how teaching about money in school can improve the financial literacy of parents!

Other stand-out winners include:

• “It’s Not About the Money” podcast, by Jenny Rolfe-Wallace in Australia was the strongest “financial influencer” entry
• Project Ikuna in New Zealand was the best non-profit project for adults
• The for-profit categories were won by Squirrel Education from the United Arab Emirates, Wealthbrite by Carla Hoppe from the UK, and Gimi from the Netherlands

MAIA co-founder Trudi Harris, who has held senior roles in marketing communications for over twenty years, said “While the standard of entry continues to improve and impress the judges, what is also really encouraging is the range of people entering, from individual teachers developing ways to teach their classes about money, to household names like the Financial Times. At the MAIAs, we have always said that if we are to make money better, everyone needs to be invited, and that is what we are seeing.”The MAIAs judges congratulate all awardees for their hard work, persistence, innovation, and commitment to changing the world.

Please visit maiawards.org to view the complete list of award recipients.