CBN visits schools, teaches pupils to save

As part of activities to mark the 2019 Global Money Week, the Central Bank of Nigeria conducted school mentoring programme for students of Community Secondary School Asokoro and Government Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3. The CBN Deputy Governor (Financial System Stability) Mrs Aisha Ahmad on Thursday in Abujap led some CBN directors to the schools.

Ahmad, while interacting with the students, conveyed key messages to empower the children and youths about money, savings, creating livelihoods and becoming entrepreneurs. She also spoke to the students on the benefits of budgeting to give one control over finances, help to build assets and create a healthy financial situation. “Budgeting is about choices. Choose what to save for the future, what to spend now and what to spend on,” she said.

The DG FSS while educating the children on the difference between good and bad debt also said they should also embrace integrity by doing what is right at all times. She explained that going into debt for things that would not improve one’s net worth such as vacations, clothes and eating out could undermine one’s financial goals. “We are passionate about creating an economy that will benefit all Nigerians and to be able to do that everyone needs to be financially literate.

“They need to know the proper ways to earn money. “My message to all children today is do the right things, study hard, try and understand yourself, who you are, what you like to do and see how you can use that to change the world,” she said. While talking to journalist on the side line of the event, Ahmad said that the aim of the programme is to impact young Nigerians to believe in themselves.

She said the youth need to harness their innate potential and make good use of it to earn and save for their future. “We want to impact people that are younger than us because we walked the road that they are walking, we know what is coming ahead and we are telling them things that we wish we knew, and things that we wish we said. “What we do at the Central Bank the governor always say, is for us to create economy that benefits all Nigerians.

They need to be financially literate, they need to have believe in themselves, they need to know the proper way to earn money. “We need to start to encourage people to follow their innate skill and to follow their own path. “My message is do the right thing, study hard, try and understand your self. Try and understand who you are, what you like to do and see how you can use what you have to do to change the world to make the world a better place.

“Look around there are many things that we might not like that is going on, that we can change. We need to now start activating our selves in what can i do. Its also about integrity. “When u earn, try and save. When you save, try and invest. We must invest in order to get returns,” she said. She also encouraged the children to always research the internet in order to learn adding that one of the quickest way to learn is to go and talk to people and find out ways of earning money.