It is not too early to introduce a child of primary school age to values of money. Teaching them essential concepts of money can help them make smarter financial choices as they grow.
Good financial habits are not automatic but must be instilled. The greatest gift you can give your kids is to teach them to be financially independent.
Experts believe that a child should start knowing about money even when he is in primary three. They should know cost and effect of money. They should know that the clothes they wear and the food they eat are bought with money.
It is in view of this that Heritage bank is taking financial literacy to schools across the country, having already covered 30 schools.
This is in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other stakeholders’ plan to implement Financial Inclusion Strategy to decrease the number of Nigerians that have no access to financial services from 46.3 percent to 20 percent by year 2020.
To achieve this objective, a high implantation priority was put on the design design of financial literacy framework that will aim at educating the Nigerian populace to improve their understanding of financial products, develop their skills and confidence to become more aware of financial risk and opportunities.
Ralph Omoregie, group head, customer experience and analytics, Heritage Bank, sees the initiative as an excellent one because knowing how to use money can make you great in the future.
According to him, with this initiative banks will take a new face. He disclosed that banks are required to adopt a school and assist out-of-schools, adding that even the executives of banks are going to take time to go to schools to teach pupils and students using the content prepared by junior achievement Nigeria.
“So indeed this is a very laudable objective. In the coming weeks from March 10-17 we will have global money week celebrations. The Bankers’ Committee has tagged 13th of March the global financial literacy day. for us we have our own celebrations and that is why this event will be the kick off. At Heritage Bank we have been ahead of this,” he said at a forum tagged “Heritage Financial Literacy Programme” and unveiling of it Brand Ambassador organised by the bank.
In her remarks at the official kick-off of financial literacy by Heritage bank, Bunmi Adebiyi, representative of CBN, said the need for Apex bank’s initiative is to provide supportive environment for banks to improve on financial inclusion.
She sees improvement in the financial inclusion drive of the CBN as she said the first survey recorded 53 percent exclusion in Nigeria but today it has reduced to 39 percent.
She stressed the need for sustainability of financial inclusion with customers understanding financial services. “We look forward to supporting you in any way we can, going forward,” she said.
Mary Akpobome, executive director on ivory banking, said at the forum that the bank would launch its agent banking on March 04 2014, which would help facilitate the financial inclusion initiative.
She said financial inclusion drive is an excellent initiative as the benefits are tremendous as the agent money banking drive will definitely go a long way.
Zuriel Oduwole, brand ambassador of the bank, explained that it was important for young boys and girls to be informed about the financial literacy, as the Company’s initiative would help children have secure future.
