Skye Bank Plc has underscored the importance of inculcating financial literacy and savings culture in children to nurture life-long culture of prudence and diligence in them.
To foster financial literacy and savings culture, Skye Bank last week presented awards to winners of its nationwide Skye Rainbow Essay Competition. The competition, which kicked off last April across the six geopolitical zones of the country saw 21 pupils emerging winners across the nation. The winners were presented with state-of-the-art educational tablets.
Speaking during the presentation in Lagos, the bank’s Executive Director, Technology & Services, Mr. Innocent Ike, said the competition demonstrated the commitment of the bank to the development of financial literacy among the Nigerian youth and the education sector generally.
He commended the pupils for believing in Skye Bank by taking up the challenge of going through the essay process.
“As a bank, we believe in promoting excellence and we are happy that you have taken the challenge of going through the rigours of the competition by applying your thinking and expressing yourself, as best as you could,” Ike said.
According to him, Skye Bank is committed to the support of efforts aimed at improving the welfare of children; a commitment that is expressed in the various financial solutions and inclusion initiatives undertaken by the bank, including the Skye Rainbow savings account, which promotes good savings culture among children.
He congratulated the winners-Ajayi Samuel, Chiemeta Pascal and Chukwuebuka Michael and commended them for demonstrating unusual strength and brilliance. He also thanked their parents and teachers for standing by them till they emerged winners in the competition.
He urged the winners and their colleagues who accompanied them to the award presentation to start saving early as this will show they have plans for their future.
“As one of the largest retail banks in the country, we encourage savings,” Ike said.
On what motivated the competition, Ike said the competition’s overall goal was to develop in the Nigerian child, creativity, good presentation skills and proper use of English, as a medium of communication.
He added that the competition intended to inculcate in the Nigerian child, a culture of appreciation for the positive parental influence over their lives in shaping their destiny.
“I’m very happy. It makes me feel good and it makes my parents proud and this has begun a good race in my life. My family and my friends will be happy with me,” Samuel Ajayi, a student of Caleb International College, Magodo and the overall winner of the competition said.
Mrs Ajayi Ololade, mother of Samuel Ajayi, the star prize winner, said she paid attention to savings and financial literacy in nurturing her children.
“All my children have Rainbow account. I opened the account for Samuel when he was three years old. Now he is 12 years old. I set up a standing order instruction which has been making it easy for me to have funds whenever I need money for his education. The bank’s new digital banking solution; SkyeXperience, makes it even easier to set-up standing instructions,” Ololade said.