Ahead of this year’s Financial Literacy Day, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s largest lender through its FutureFirst Initiative kicked off a Financial Literacy Programme as part of its strategic intervention towards youth empowerment.
The Financial Literacy Programme which is in partnership with Junior Achievement of Nigeria (JAN) will run for 13weeks across various secondary schools in the Lagos metropolis. The programme is designed to provide an experiential supplement to the business education of high school students in Nigeria and empower students with financial knowledge through training on running a business and learning of basic money skills to promote a savings culture and building a crop of future financial managers.
According to the Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, at FirstBank, there is no denying that the future is our most present priority. It is on this premise and coupled with our passion to see a more financially independent generation that we have designed the Financial Literacy programme because we believe that young people, who are the beneficiaries of this project, are indeed critical for economic growth and therefore represent the future of the nation, as well as the future of the Bank.
“As Nigeria’s leading financial service institution, through our Corporate Responsibility Platform, we are setting the pace in building a talent hub of future leaders and working to avert the negative effects that may result from financial indiscipline. The project will be implemented based on a structured employee volunteering program where, employees of FirstBank will offer one hour weekly for a period of 13 weeks and employ their skills in providing financial literacy knowledge to the chosen secondary school students.” she said.
You will recall, that last year, FirstBank launched the FutureFirst initiative, a unique initiative with two expressions (Career Counseling and Financial Literacy Programme) both aimed at ensuring the youth of our Nation are financially independent through fulfilling careers and the right financial knowledge. FutureFirst through the Career Counseling and Financial Literacy Programme will be used to empower secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 17years old in JSS 2 to SS2 to build fulfilling careers and be better equipped with the tools and knowledge for long-term financial independence. The Financial Literacy Programme is coming at a right period as it’s coincides with the commemoration of this year Global Money Week.