Financial acumen is one of the essential life skills that will help anybody who aims to be financially independent.
However, one of the ways to teach such skill is when it is introduced as a curriculum in schools or as an empowerment program, just as some banks in Nigeria are doing.
Most of the programs in various schools, especially the primary and secondary do not translate to financial skills, while some of the schools do not have any financial education plan for students.
In March 2014, at an event tagged “Global Money Week” held at Abuja, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that the curriculum that would be used in Nigerian schools to teach the concept of financial literacy would be released next year.
This year 2017, over 80,000 students benefited from Junior Achievement Nigeria’s cutting-edge curriculum based on this year’s Global Money Week’s “Learn. Save. Earn” theme.
This initiative by the CBN underscores the importance of having kids with personal finance skills, a skill that remains invaluable to surviving in the 21st century.
In as much as we try to incorporate personal finance or financial education into the academic curricula, it is required of us to know that teachers alone may not achieve this quickly.
Parents will also have a demanding role to play in this regard; perhaps they are also in good position to equip kids with personal finance skills, by helping them to understand how to manage money.
Importantly, if our kids get the required financial skills today, it serves as a solid foundation for them to start building their financial life.
To put simply, we teach them today; then tomorrow they start making insightful decisions, this, in the long run, affects the economy positively.
Yes, it impacts on the economy because solid financial education is a key to national development, while the opposite remains a dangerous bane, which we must not contend with.
In a research paper titled “Financial Literacy Education: Key to Poverty Alleviation and National Development in Nigeria,” it says financial literacy surveys in many countries especially African countries indicate that consumers do not have adequate financial background or understanding and that they estimate their needs for financial education.
“The observation is that a major bane of economic development is a lack of financial literacy and inability to maximize the growing capital markets, due to the ever increasing products and services which are continuously offered.”
As a fact, many of the developed countries like the United Kingdom recently introduced financial education in their school curriculum, against the belief that it has been there for years.
In other words, it’s not only Nigeria that recently kick started the journey of financial education. What matters the most, is that we have started and sustainability remains paramount.
The new financial education curriculum, courtesy of CBN which had been approved by Nigeria Council on Education will take effect from the next academic year starting in October.
Without a doubt, the goal of this initiative is to build a stable financial economy by nurturing young minds that would make informed decisions while spending.
“This is a strategy put in place to impart the younger population by teaching them about savings, investments and financial concepts from their early years rather than wait until they grow older,” says Khadijah Kasim, Head of Consumer Education, CBN.
“We believe that once these habits are imbibed, they would become part of them. On the contrary, if allowed to grow without financial education, it will be difficult for the children to learn financial discipline.
Another financial institution that is in the forefront of promoting financial education is the First Bank of Nigeria.
First Bank has a Financial Literacy Programme which an initiative built on the expression “FutureFirst.”
The primary goal is to equip secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 17 years old, to help them build fulfilling careers, as well providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge for long-term financial independence.
“The Financial Literacy Programme has been designed to provide an experiential supplement to the business education of high school students in Nigeria.
To empower students with financial knowledge through training on running a business and the basics of money to promote a savings culture amongst them,” FBN said on its website.
Conclusively, there are other initiatives too by other financial institutions to promote financial literacy, the key remains thr sustainability of these initiatives. Let’s join hands and build a stable financial economy by nurturing the young minds.
