Sterling Bank Plc, your one customer bank, last week took Save for the Future Campaign to Primary and Secondary Schools in Rivers State. The lender said the campaign targeted at pupils will improve financial literacy in the state.
Speaking during the 2017 World Savings Day organized at Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association Nursery and Primary School, 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Sterling Bank’s Regional Business Executive, Retail, South-South, Mrs. Nneka Enang, noted that the move was to ensure that pupils imbibe a savings culture.
Nneka Enang said: “Savings is for everyone and we want to impart the savings culture in the lives of children and students, so that they grow with it, because they are our future leaders and we want to start it now.”
“We want to catch them young so that saving whatever they have will become part of them so that when they grow up, the future will be great for everyone.”
“We want to make them financial literate citizens. Financial literate citizens save and become empowered citizens. This our commitment to the future generation. It is about bursting the myth that people can only save when they have so much. A financial literate person understands that no matter how little you have, you can save out of it.”
“What we did today is a way of sensitizing our people on the need to save. How the children asked questioned and answered questions after the lecture shows that they have taken up the orientation.”
She said Sterling Bank is committed to giving knowledge to ensure that “children, who are leaders of tomorrow are financially responsible and stable.”
Besides, she said: “Sterling Bank is ensuring that Nigerians do not eat up everything they have. This is targeted at ensuring that they save the future.”
Similarly, wife of the General Officer Commanding 6 Division, Port Harcourt, and the President of NAOWA, 6 Division, Port Harcourt, Mrs. Grace Enobong Udoh, urged students to develop the habit of saving.
She said; “We come here because you are our future leaders. We want to teach you how to save to save our future. In anything you do, do not spend whatever you have carelessly.”
On her part, Rhema Coleman, a student of the school, who spoke after the teaching, said, “It is not good to spend all our money. When we spend our money carelessly, we may not have enough money for anything we want to do in future.”
“I have started saving. I advise my friends to start saving to be able to make money. I advise Sterling Bank to continue this teaching even in other schools so that children and students will stop spending and save the money their parents give them.”
Pupils numbering over 50 participated in the programme and were also trained on how to use the piggy bank machine for savings