In line with its enriching lives proposition and renewed commitment to promoting financial literacy among students, Sterling Bank Plc last week, trained over 17,000 secondary school students across the country on the key fundamentals of financial literacy and re-enforcing the need to encourage savings culture among the youth.

The exercise, which is in commemoration of the 2017 Financial Literacy Day is In line with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bankers’ Committee led initiatives is aimed at promoting financial literacy in Nigeria through the Financial Literacy and Public Enlightenment (FLPE) committee.

The Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mr. Yemi Adeola, led the senior management team of the Bank that took part in the exercise as he taught students of United Community School, Ilorin to the delight of both students and teachers of the school. He also gave out various gift items including IPads and other branded items to outstanding students who took part in the exercise.

Other locations where the Bank was adequately represented include Kwara State, Taraba State, Zamfara State, Abia State, and Ondo State. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had mandated each bank to teach in five schools per state selected from each of the six geo-political zones, making a total of 30 schools per bank.

The Bank however took a step further in line with its purpose of enriching lives by extending the programme to schools in Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Kogi, Benue, and Kaduna. Others are Niger, Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Jos and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja ahead of competition.

Copies of the revised edition of its two books on financial literacy; ‘My Little Money Book’ and ‘FUND$’ and other corporate gift items such as school bags and other writing materials were distributed free to students. Students with exceptional performance during the exercise went home with iPads.

The Bank’s Managing Director noted that the Financial Literacy Day is also in line with the lender’s “One Education” initiative to further consolidate the strategic focus of the Bank on education and commitment to youth empowerment and development.

Mr. Adeola explained the Bank took the decision to expand the coverage beyond the scope assigned to it by the CBN in order to reach out to more students and teach them how to imbibe the culture of financial management at a young age.

This, according to him, would enable them to understand the basic elements of financial management adding that the Bank had used the opportunity of this year’s programme to impart useful knowledge, discipline and patriotism to the younger generation.

He noted that Sterling Bank had remained consistent in providing adequate support for child education by providing materials that could be of help to them in their educational pursuits.

His words: “Sterling Bank has provided for students in different categories. We have an Edutablet that contains school curriculum for students with unlimited access to valuable content to prepare them for their various examinations and enhance knowledge. The Bank has also provided an e-library for the College of Education, Ikere Ekiti to provide the students and other users, unlimited access to real time global educational resources that aids learning and research as part of the Bank’s contributions to improving the nation’s education sector under our ‘One Education’ initiative. We have published two books on financial literacy and adopted a school in Lagos’’.

The Bank’s boss who argued that there was no country in the world where the government alone had the resources required to fund education restated the Bank’s readiness to support initiatives in the education sector aimed at preparing the younger generation for life.

His words: “Our objective is to transform education; to invest in education and enable investment in the sector. The Bank sees education as a means of transforming the country. Sterling Bank is known for innovation in several areas. As it concerns Education which has become a major focus for the Bank, we believe our business is to enrich lives in innovative ways. When you invest in people, especially young people, you are enriching their lives and they will in turn enrich the society”.