• Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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NPF Microfinance Bank rolls out KEA to promote access to education financing

NPF Microfinance Bank rolls out KEA to promote access to education financing

The Nigeria Police, Microfinance bank, has initiated a robust children’s education financing facility which aims at supporting parents to pay school fees seamlessly. Known as ‘Kid’s Education Account’ (KEA), the bank came up with the idea after realising that despite great efforts by government at the three-tier level to enable significant enrolment in schools, millions of Nigerian children are still denied their right to education, essentially due to poverty level restrictions.

According to the bank, restricted access to education is one of the surest ways of transmitting poverty from generation to generation and that education is a vital human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In designing the product, the bank believed that every child should have the right to quality education so that they can have more chances in life, including employment opportunities, better health and also to participate in the political process.

Early childhood education and care as conceptualised and incorporated in the features of the product makes it a unique financing option currently being offered in the banking industry, the bank said in a statement.

The KEA, which is about to be unveiled encourages institutions and parents to open account with the bank to have unbridled access to finance education of their children and wards.

Though there are similar existing facilities offered by financial institutions in the country, the bank said the product has exceptional attractive features that would be exciting to parents and guardians.

One of the sterling features is access to up to 50 per cent school fees which is offered as loan to interested parents. The Kid’s Education Account is also specifically conceived offering high interest rates on savings meant for the purpose of the account.

The bank said it had taken the burden of the generous interest offering to encourage parents operate their accounts as it realizes that education reduces poverty, boosts economic growth and increases income and more so increases a person’s chances of having a healthy life, reduces maternal deaths, and combats diseases.

“Education can promote gender equality, promote peace and it is one of the most important investments parents can make and parent’s engagement in children’s education is progressively viewed as an essential support to children’s early learning, care, and education programmes.

Effective parent engagement during the period from preschool through the early grades is a key contributor to children’s positive intellectual, socio-emotional skills outcomes, and healthy development” the bank said in a statement.

In addition, the bank said its Personnel After Service Account, PASA, is another unique product designed to help people retire to happy life.

Under the PASA arrangement the bank allows contributors to access up to 30 per cent loan for business after retirement while offering high interest rate on savings.

The bank also accepts the account as collateral for loan and offers more incentives than the Contributory Pensions Scheme or the currently launched Micropension.