In its bid to expose the citizenry to financial literacy at very early age in life, Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s most innovative banking services provider, joined other stakeholders across the world in celebrating the World Savings Day with the theme: “Our Future Starts with Savings.”
The World Savings Day stresses the ingenuity of savings to economic development, which is in line with the bank’s financial literacy programme aimed at introducing its financial literacy edutainment resources to children and young persons under its BUD proposition. The event was held at the Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Ojo in Lagos.
At the occasion, the MD/CEO of the bank, Ifie Sekibo, emphasised the importance of savings in both modern economies and for individuals – young and old alike – to attain a higher standard of life and secure the economy.
He stated that Heritage Bank’s involvement in the World Savings celebration was a demonstration of its commitment to innovation.
According to him, “children are very special to us at Heritage Bank, hence we decided to celebrate today with them in a unique way that offers the opportunity to have fun and learn about bank savings.
Sekibo noted that for early positioning of children for global and local relevance, there was need to teach them how to prioritise savings over spending, which is a valuable life lesson and one that takes time to learn.
He explained that opening a savings account for a child is one of the best ways to introduce him/her to the concept of saving at an early age. He added that one of the ways the bank has continued to promote savings among children is the introduction of “My day as a banker”, which is also the Heritage Bank’s unique way of promoting financial literacy among children, which is the core of the HB Bud Savings Account specially designed to promote savings habit among children and youths.
He also said Heritage Bank developed the HB Bud Savings Account to help its customers to create wealth for the children and provide them a future of financial independence.
Team Lead, Financial Literacy, Customer Experience and Analytics, Heritage Bank, Ajiri Efeturi, who led the 174 secondary school students in attendance on how to save effectively and cultivate good saving habits, talked on the need to be financially literate in a bid to ensure that one could manage his money effectively as well as make one more responsible and able to plan for a secured future.
She differentiated between needs and wants, remarking that needs are what one needs to survive while wants are those things which one would like to have but could really do without.