With N1,000 daily savings you can start your own business

Do you know that if you set aside N1,000 daily as savings, you would realise about N365,000 at the end of the year? With this amount of money you can settle your house rent, pay school fees, use part of it for your Christmas celebrations or even use it to start a small business.

A lot of financial institutions specifically, microfinance banks have designed products that will enable you to achieve the daily savings. Apart from the fact that some of these banks give a reward to customers who saved more and perhaps did not withdraw till the end of the promo period.

For instance, Global Initiative Microfinance Bank Limited recently concluded a savings promo where the bank realised sizeable amount of money as over 500 people opened account during the savings promo that lasted for one year period.

“We are sure that those 500 people will continue as they are able to keep from withdrawal for a whole year, some of them are building on their account after a year promo,” Valentine Whensu, chairman, National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), Lagos chapter, said.

Speaking with BusinessDay after the programme, he said, “We ask our numerous customers to save for one year of which one of the conditions is they will not withdraw during the promo period. Today, we say thank you to them because we are able to achieve our goal which is to encourage savings habit.”

The bank presented three different gifts to three lucky winners who saved more and regularly while consolation gifts were given to others.

According Miriam Caldwell, personal finance specialists, it is important to find new ways to save money regularly. If you make savings a regular part of your everyday life you will find yourself in a much better position later on in life. You will be able to retire comfortably, buy a new home when you are ready and deal with any emergency that comes your way.

“You may be asking yourself why is there so much pressure to save money. If you have enough to pay for everything you need, why should you worry about putting any aside each month? There are a variety of reasons to begin saving money. Different people save for different reasons,” she said.

It is important to have an emergency fund set aside to cover unexpected expenses. This could cover an unexpected car repair, your emergency appendectomy or a sudden job loss. Ideally your emergency fund should be about three to six months of your expenses.

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE