• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

How CBN, Polaris Bank are extending frontiers of financial literacy to young minds

Tokunbo-Abiru

The determination to meet the Federal Government’s 80 percent financial inclusion and literacy target by 2020 is pushing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) along with some deposit banks, notably Polaris Bank, to extend their frontiers in this drive to young minds in schools, hoping to nip in the bud mistakes some parents made by failing to inculcate in young ones the habit of saving from their early age, writes CHUKA UROKO  

Education, it is said, breaks ignorance and liberates the mind which is why literacy is a must for every aspect of life and activity, especially finance. The belief in financial literacy is that where there is knowledge of finance, it leads to empowerment and helps an individual to make the right financial choices.

This belief, perhaps, informed federal government’s decision to launched, in 2012, the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) aimed at reducing the number of eligible adult Nigerians that are excluded from the formal financial system from 46.3 percent to 20 percent by the year 2020.

But, before financial inclusion, there must be financial literacy which was why the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently organized a financial literacy stakeholders’ conference in Abuja with the theme, ‘Implementing financial literacy and consumer protection to advance financial inclusion in Nigeria’.

With barely two years to meeting the federal government’s 80 percent financial inclusion and literacy target, recent data released by Enhancing Financial Innovative and Access (EFiNA) indicates that 36.6 million eligible Nigerian adults, representing 36.8 percent of Nigeria’s population, still do not have access to financial services, underscoring the need to work harder on the exclusion rate from this year.

Towards achieving this target, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the Abuja conference, unveiled four policy documents which are the revised National Financial Inclusion Strategy; the Financial Literacy Framework; the Consumer Protection Framework and the Consumer Education Framework.

The revised document developed with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was principally prepared for banks and other financial institutions regulated by the CBN, but with extensive stakeholder consultation. It is the first of its kind, and provides policy direction for the banking industry as well as serves as a guide for other sub-sectors of the financial system.

The performance of Nigeria’s Deposit Money Banks as the most important leg in the stakeholder map to achieving the 80 percent penetration and inclusion of the unbanked into the mainstream financial system by 2020, cannot be over-emphasised.

Nigerian banks that have been in the forefront supporting the CBN since 2012, jointly and individually, through various organs of mass communication, have also made available different credit and funding options to small scale entrepreneurs and business owners, operating in the informal sector bringing them into mainstream financial system.

One area in which banks have made strides is in financial advocacy and literacy where the general banking public and students are taught the rudiments of finance.

On this score, Polaris Bank’s footprint in financial literacy has been remarkable, strutting the length and breadth of Nigeria to preach the gospel of finance employing interactive financial literacy sessions as a platform to empower students with money management skills in schools.

Giving insights into the rationale behind the initiative, Tokunbo Abiru, managing director/CEO of Polaris Bank, said, “this is one of our tactical approaches to entrench savings culture at an early age and ensure an empowered life and a sustainable economy in line with CBN’s financial inclusion mandate.”

“As a responsible corporate citizen, it behoves on us to do what is appropriate for the betterment of individuals and the society at large,” he added.

Apart from the CEO, senior management and other categories of staff also take students through the rudiments of saving, budgeting, planning and preventing identity theft, among other things.

So far, the bank has organised interactive sessions on financial literacy to schools across seven states, namely Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Oyo, Bauchi and Benue. The sessions were facilitated by 155 employees of the bank led by the CEO.

At OffotUkwa Secondary School, Calabar, Cross River State and four other schools in Akwa Ibom State namely; Uyo High School, Bright Future International School, Nigerian Christian Institute and Redemption Academy, students took useful lessons on managing and saving money.

To underscore the importance of the initiative, Abiru taught the students ways to be thrifty and start saving for the future, urging them not to spend all monetary gifts they get buying things, but rather learn to keep a part of it in the bank and watch it grow.

In Ebonyi, the sessions with students held at Fountain of Knowledge International Schools, Jesus is Lord International School, Great Minds Academy International School, Success Impact Academy and Our Lady Schools.

In Zamfara State, students from Alhaq Academy, Gusau, SBMC Model School, Iman Global International Nursery/Primary School, Caliphate School and College of Education Staff School benefitted.  Students in Oyo State were not left out as sessions held at Rosebud College, Valencia College, Seed of Life College, Ogunsanya Girls Science Academy and Frontliners Primary and Secondary Schools.  Overall, about 6,000 students have benefitted from the training.

Speaking with the students of Uyo High School, Abiru emphasised the importance of thrift and imbibing the culture of saving for the future. He advised that they should endeavour to be frugal and do more of savings.

“You are not too young to start saving. The time to start is now so that it can become a habit that will stand you in good stead in the future. You also need to be financially literate to avoid making poor financial decisions and to curtail the development of poor financial habits that can adversely affect you. When visitors come to your house and give you money, don’t spend it on snacks. You should learn to save such monies,” he counseled.

Explaining the bank’s outreach to the schools, Head, Sustainability and Consumer Protection, Polaris Bank, Bola Adesanoye, said it was part of efforts of the bank to deepen financial literacy and inclusion, especially amongst students thus extending the frontiers of sustainability advocacy.

“For instance, some adults are not financially literate, and they have been living with the consequences of this. We shouldn’t make the same mistakes some of our parents made by failing to inculcate the habit of saving in our young ones from an early age. We want you to grow and become fully rounded adults with minimal financial issues, hence the decision by the bank to take on this responsibility of deepening financial literacy in you, our pupils,” she said.

Aptly, it wasn’t just about talk; students that attended the sessions, especially those that gave correct answers to quiz questions, received educational gifts items and cash incentives. Happily, a sizable number of the students joined the ranks of financially literate persons in the country at the end of the outreach.