The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has urged secondary school students in Sokoto State on the need to imbibe proper financial disciplines and saving culture for a productive living.
Speaking at Sani Dingyadi Secondary School, Sokoto, on Thursday, the NDIC’s Zonal Controller, Sokoto Office, Mr Umar Kaoje-Bello, said the initiative would encourage financial prudence and resource management among the students.
According to him, the activity is part of the annual commemoration of 2021 World Saving Day with the theme: ”Understanding the Importance of Saving”.
He said NIDC was committed to promoting saving culture and remodelling of youths to improve their financial inclusion and increase investment growth in the nation’s economy.
Kaoje-Bello said the campaign on financial literacy, resources management and budgeting, saving culture were embarked on nationwide by NDIC to encourage poor Nigerians on how to keep their money and make wise investments.
He said the exercise also provided the chance to educate young people on how to keep their monies safe at designated banks instead of keeping them in an unsecured environment to be mutilated by termites or stolen.
Kaoje-Bello emphasises the importance of monetary saving habits among Nigerian students, as part of efforts to “Catch Them Young” to cultivate good financial habits.
He said that good saving habits would encourage prudence, transparent dealings and growth of businesses, in view of the need to breed empowered individuals in the society.
The controller urged participants to be wary of financial frauds going on through online banking services, Points of Service (POS) Operators among others, which he said mostly occurred due to greed and eagerness to obtain cheap proceeds.
He said that NDIC had core mandates of depositor’s guarantee, banking supervision, failure resolutions and bank liquidations.
He said that the NDIC had since 1994 undertaken liquidations of 49 Deposit Monetary Banks (DMBs), 367 Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and 51 Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) in Nigeria.
“The primary objectives of Deposit Insurance System (DIS) in Nigeria are to protect the interest of small depositors, promote public confidence and contribute to financial system stability.
“As at August 2021, there are 30 Deposit Money Banks, 874 Microfinance Banks, 34 Primary Mortgage Banks and 22 Licensed Monetary Money Offices,” he said.
He said that the NDIC personnel were trained to uphold the values of integrity, accountability, respect and fairness, discipline, teamwork, passion as well as professionalism in the discharge of their duties.
In his presentation, the Director, Asset Management Department of NDIC, Mrs Emily Osuji, represented by Mr Iwaloye Ehinlaiye, said NDIC desired to derive financial inclusion of the students and the people of Nigeria.
Osuji noted that targeted areas included rural areas to educate them on financial system in order to take advantage of the benefits available in the financial system to boost their business growth.
According to him, the NDIC will also promote saving culture, financial products and to ensure that people appreciate the safety that is available in keeping their financial resources in the nation for investment derive opportunities.
“In spite of money is hard to earn, some people still spend money anyhow because they do not budget for it. If you have budget, you do not spend your money outside the budget.
“We want to encourage all of us to reach out to others. We are not taking anything away with us, when we die, we leave everything and go all alone,” Osuji said.
Also, the School Principal, Malam Umar Moyi, urged the students to take advantage of the educative event to have a changed of attitude of properly keeping their money
He lauded the NIDC for bringing the financial literacy workshop to youths in the secondary schools in the state.
He noted that the event was very important and timely, adding that it would instill the habit of planning approach as key to success.
He said “Let me use this medium to express my utmost appreciations to NDIC for bringing this memorable programme to our youth in Secondary schools.”
The State Commissioner of Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Alhaji Bello Guiwa, who was represented by Director, Alhaji Aliyu Jodi, expressed state government’s appreciation to the NDIC’s intervention for teaching their wards how to save against all odds.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured questions and answers on banking and other financial literacy as well as lecture presentation on different topics.
