Heritage Bank has advised students to take full advantage of the Financial Literacy Campaign being championed through partnership between the Central Bank of Nigeria and other banks in the country to become adept at growing and managing wealth from their formative ages.
According to the bank, the emerging global economic realities have made it imperative for the leaders of tomorrow to have unparalleled skills in money management matters.
Speaking to senior students of the National Comprehensive Secondary School in Oji Avenue, near Glass Industry Road, Ogbo Hill, Aba, Abia State during the recently held 2015 Financial Literacy Campaign as part of the Global Money Week activities, the Bank’s Customer Experience and Analytical Officer, Kikanwa Akpenyi, said the intention of CBN in launching the Financial Literacy Campaign is to teach children and young adults financial responsibility as well as create a more enabling environment where students can understand what happens in banks where their deposits are lodged.
“The need to be prudent has never become more important than now. The young generation need to learn, as a matter of compulsion, why it is important to be knowledgeable about where they keep their funds. So financial management, money management, savings, how to spend, how to be prudent are basically the things that are needed to be able to live a successful and fulfilled life as an adult; these are the things that are taught during the financial literacy sessions,” Akpenyi said.
She noted that the initiative prepares the children for the future as they learn and develop skills that prepare them on how to manage needs and wants so as to become more prudent and able to make more choices when it comes to finances.
“And for the larger society, it does not end here; we have proposed that it should go to the artisans, market women and those who do not know a lot of things about banking. Most of these people just have an idea, but they need more knowledge. For this reason, the financial literacy initiative should be imparted to the larger society”, she noted.
In his own contribution, Oturu Emmanuel of Junior Achievers of Nigeria, an NGO that partners with the CBN for the 2015 Literacy Day, said, “The efforts of Heritage Bank and others in taking financial literacy to the students deserve commendation because the future of every country is in the hands of the youths and we have to move from a job seeking generation to a job creating generation. Our vision as a country to build business conscientious leaders with work readiness and entrepreneurship acumen will be greatly boosted by this campaign.”
He counselled that if the students would apply everything they learnt during the exercise, they would be sure of a safe and wealthy future.
Experience Centre Manager at Heritage Bank’s Port Harcourt Branch, Figbene Briggs, noted that the outing was impressive as the students and teachers who took part in the exercise displaced hunger for information and knowledge on money management and wealth preservation.
“The commitment of the students and teachers, in terms of their eagerness to have the knowledge we bring to bear, goes a long way to show that they have interest in being successful as they grow up. As a Bank, we intend to create more awareness among the Nigerian youths on the need to be hard working and financially disciplined so that they will make less mistakes in financial matters and excel in their chosen career,” he said.
The principal of the school, Stanley Nwigwe, and the teachers all expressed happiness for the programme. They also appealed to the bank to continue to strengthen its commitment and relationship with the school.
