The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Skye Bank Nigeria Plc., Tokunbo Abiru, has advised Secondary School students to imbibe savings culture while they are still young, as this will guarantee their future.
He gave the advice while delivering a lecture at a one day seminar at Government Day Secondary School, Shadawanka, Barracks, Bauchi.
The Seminar, facilitated by Skye Bank Nigeria Plc., was to mark the 2017 Global Financial Week organized by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) in collaboration with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN).
The Global Financial Week is a week chosen by CBN and JAN to share ideas for the younger generation at this moment to understand what it takes for them to plan.
Represented by Hedima Manasseh, the Bank’s Group Head, Northeast, Tokunbo Abiru, said that the financial week celebration is aimed at getting the younger ones early and giving them financial knowledge and to also encourage and motivate them to save.
“A lot of people are not aware of the importance of savings” he said. “For our children, especially at this level, if they understand the importance of savings, it will help them a great deal as they put in money no matter how small they are being encouraged, as they grow up, they will do better and at the end of the day, their retirement is guaranteed.
“This will help them shoulder some of the unforeseen circumstances that may arise in their life and many other benefits of savings.
“All we as a bank are out to do in collaboration with the CBN is to encourage them to have this financial knowledge on how to be able to manage their lives.”
The GMD/CEO stated that what the students have learnt will help them organize and plan their lives at this early stage so that they can confront the challenges of the future.
He added that if they learn how to save at this stage no matter how little and they maintain it over time, they will become financially independent.
“I am fulfilled and satisfied at the response of the students during the seminar. I was highly impressed with them because they asked thought-through and insightful questions which showed that they know what they want,” he said.
The Principal of the school, Shehu Alhaji, said he was happy and excited that his school was chosen as one of the schools to benefit from the seminar.
The Head Boy and Head Girl, Aliyu Babaji and Felicia Joel respectively, who spoke separately on behalf of all the students were unanimous in their appreciation to Skye Bank for the knowledge they impacted in them during the seminar.
They said they have learnt how to start saving money now and have also been motivated to be financially literate saying that “we have learnt how not to spend all the money we get but to save a little from it.
Highlights of the event was the presentation of financial literacy books to the best interactive students during the seminar.
The total number of schools that benefited from the financial literacy seminar under the aegis of Skye Bank Plc. is 30 spread across the 6 geo-political zones of the country.
Skye Bank is one of the eight banks described by the regulatory CBN as a Systematically Important Bank (SIB), on account of its size, market share and financial interconnectedness in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region.
