How Fidelity Bank paving the way for financial literacy

Due to the high number of poverty and inequality in Nigeria, this stood at approximately 83 million people, representing a 40 per cent of the total population of those that live below the poverty line as of 2019.

Although, several organizations are working to reduce this number, with leading financial institution Fidelity Bank at the forefront.

An American economist, Alan Greenspan, who was Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States (US) from 1987 to 2006, has been quoted numerous times as saying that “the number one problem in today’s generation is a lack of financial literacy.” The average person works at least 1,801 hours per year.

In retrospect, the fact that the average person does not devote even a fraction of that time to learning how to manage the resources entrusted to him underscores the preceding adage even more.

Furthermore, this results in many ill-informed financial decisions, which harm a country’s economy by increasing the number of people living below the poverty line.

Fidelity Bank has been teaching secondary school students in Nigeria’s 36 state how to manage and multiply money for several years. To commemorate this year’s Global Money Week and Financial Literacy Day, Fidelity Bank assigned its employees to secondary schools across the country to educate students on how to make informed financial decisions.

The goal of the programme was also to encourage children to participate in wealth-creating activities in order to improve their current and long-term financial well-being.

Fidelity Bank, led by Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, started the children on the path to making financially wise decisions in March 2021. To commemorate Children’s Day and encourage a healthy saving culture, the bank doled out a total of N9.3 million to 62 Sweet Account (SWEETA) holders.

Extending this initiative beyond the classroom, Fidelity Bank introduced the Get Alert in Millions Savings Campaign to encourage a healthy saving culture amongst its prospective and existing customers. The Scheme, which has run for four consecutive seasons, requires customers to maintain certain monthly balances to stand a chance to win cash prizes of N1, 000,000, N2, 000,000 N3, 000,000 or N10, 000,000 depending on the balance maintained for the month. Since its inception, over 77 millionaires have emerged.

With excellent leadership, creativity and innovation, the impact of Fidelity Bank’s initiatives have been felt in several sectors of the nation’s economy, yielding tremendous benefits not just to relevant stakeholders but for the society at large.