First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited has urged students to inculcate the culture and habit of savings and investment to guarantee their economically sound future.
The advice, the bank said, is in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) financial inclusion strategy.
Addressing students of the Model Secondary School, Maitama, Group Head, Abuja and North Directorate, FBN, Mr. Muntari Zubairu said having financial literacy knowledge at an early stage in life would not only be profit the youths but also provides an indispensable asset for the economy in general.
He said: “The mission basically is to carry out the mandate given to us by the Central Bank of Nigeria to inculcate the spirit of savings culture and attitude in the minds of young Nigerians at this stage of their lives so that when they grow up, they’ll already understand the means of savings and we expect them to be our ambassadors by passing same information to other colleagues who are not here with us.”
He said though a CBN’s initiative, it was also the bank’s contribution to financial inclusion to create financial awareness which is a key driving force in financial inclusion in the country.
“In Nigeria we have over 170 million people and our target basically is to ensure each and every Nigerian has an account and this is one of the ways to achieve that,” he said.
He also said the bank would soon award scholarships as part of strategy to encourage savings among the young ones.
Zubairu who earlier personally took a class on ‘growing your money’ commended the response from the students.
“The engagement was very interesting because they asked very good and valid questions and which means they are interested and we have also told them we are coming back next year to ask them what they have done with what they’ve been taught today.
“So there’s that eagerness and willingness on their part to be financially included and I assure you that what we’ve seen so far, within the next one or two weeks, half of them will open account,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Head, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, FBN, Mr. Ismail Omamegbe explained that the Abuja leg of the financial literacy series was one of the numerous schools that the bank had adopted in driving financial literacy through a partnership with Junior Achievement Nigeria and the CBN as well.
He said: “Today’s exercise has been successful-you see the way the students were responding and they tend to understand what the exercise is, what money is all about and how you can save your money and the various ways you can save your money as well as the various instruments that are involved.”
