Caption: From right, Jude Monye, Executive Director, Heritage Bank Plc; Oluwatoyin Owoade, Experience Centre Associate, Lagos Island, Zone 1; Dr Stephanie Oarhe, Convener, Heart to Heart Foundation; Reverend Chris Oarhe, Co-Convener, Heart to Heart Foundation; and Ozena Utulu, Acting Group Head, Corporate Communication of the bank, during its partnership with Heart-to-Heart Foundation at a conference in Lagos.
In line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Heritage Bank Plc recently joined the rest of the world in the celebration of 2022 Global Money Week, now in its 10th year, from March 21 to 27, as part of its commitment to financial literacy.
The event, with the theme, “Build your future, be smart about money,” involved a series of educational programme, through which Heritage Bank raised awareness amongst over 10,000 teens and youths across the 36 states, thereby enhancing the capabilities of young people to make sound decisions when it comes to financial matters to secure their futures.
One of such activities was the partnership with the Heart-to-Heart Foundation on building successful families by educating married couples, counselling teens and young adults and holding awareness campaigns and to enlighten them on Financial Literacy.
The Executive Director, Jude Monye, reiterated the banks’ commitments to further entrenching financial inclusion, seeing financial literacy as a key enabler, which could also be achieved when young Nigerians are properly educated on the importance of sound decisions on money matters.
Speaking at conference titled, “the Cheating Mind,” Ozena Utulu, acting Group Head, Corporate Communications stressed the importance of financial intelligence, which would help ensure a secured future of the young ones, and create a sense of responsibility with money which would in turn finance their skills in the future.
She spoke of the imperative for time management in money making, and why it should be understood, advising the youths to “start saving now, make the right choices while spending money by creating a budget, identify the needs and wants and also imbibe the culture of savings, be smart about how money is spent and spend money wisely.”
She noted that unlike in the ancient past when transactions were through trade by barter, today it is by cash, cheque books, Automated Money transfer, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Card amongst others.
Heritage Bank, she continued, as part of engendering saving culture, offers various account opening packages like the Bud account for students and Tier 1 account for young adults.
Also speaking, the Co-convener, Heart to Heart Foundation, Dr. Stephine Oarhe commended the bank for being at the forefront of instilling financial knowledge and saving culture amongst the young generation.
She admonished parents not to entrust their responsibilities to children, but allow them grow before assuming the adult responsibilities, advising students to focus on themselves and ensure they are better than who they were yesterday.
