Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele said on Tuesday that schools in the country would begin teaching of financial education at the beginning of the 2017/2018 academic session in the formal school system.
The CBN, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education and National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) developed and infused a Financial Literacy Curriculum into the Nigeria Educational Curricula at the Basic and Senior Secondary School levels.
Emefiele disclosed this at the Financial Literacy Summit on Tuesday in Abuja, explaining the need to equip Nigeria students with the capabilities of making informed financial decisions and participate in financial market activities.
Emefiele said they are currently developing a teacher’s guide and hopes that learning would start soon.
“This, I hope will be one of my legacies to the youth and to the country as the CBN governor,” he stated.
Umma Dutse, Director, Consumer Protection Department, CBN had on Monday announced that the Education Authority of the federation has approved CBN’s financial curriculum which would soon be deployed for teaching in schools across the country.
The Financial Education Curriculum for Basic and Senior Secondary school system targets to equip Nigeria students with the capabilities of making informed financial decisions and participate in financial market activities.
Dutse was speaking at the Global Money Walk Event on Monday as Nigeria commemorates the Global Money Week. She said “the children and youth target groups identified by the framework has in place a strategy for imparting the younger population by teaching them about savings, investments and financial concepts from their early years rather than wait till they grow older”.
Nigeria is part of the global money week, an annual event during which countries simultaneously try to create awareness amongst children and youth in order to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to use financial services responsibly and prudently.
This year’s event is titled, “Learn, Save, Earn.” Dutse who was represented at the event by Khadijah Kasim, head of Consumer Education, stated that it is important for the nation and every individual to invest in the future of the children as their growth is important to the growth of the Nation at large.
While addressing the students, she said “As tomorrow’s leaders, you are indeed very important to the growth and development of our great country. It is our duty, therefore to invest in your future so as to prepare you for the challenges of leading our great country’’.
The event which was organized in collaboration with SAGE (Student for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship) was in line with the mandate of CBN to promote a sound financial system. Dutse added that it is the responsibility of the students to learn about financial literacy and exhibit financial capability to save and reinvest so as to earn income.
Chinenye Udeh, SAGE program manager, said that SAGE creates the platform for children and youth to be financial literates and equipped entrepreneurs.
She said “In our programmes, the children are involved in the running of businesses. We teach them how profits are made and saved. In the SAGE school clubs we also train the children on community services from which profit are made”.
