Yemisi Izuora
The Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, has awarded prizes to the winners of the maiden edition of the MoneyBee Financial Literacy Competition, organised by the Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN).
The prize, which is a Stanbic IBTC Educational Trustee Account, worth over one hundred thousand naira, was awarded to each of the four outstanding students with two each from two winning secondary schools. The schools emerged joint winners out of the 25 public and private schools that took part in the competition.
The Stanbic IBTC Trustee account is an educational trust product to help parents attain their objective of providing sound education for their children through a plan that is convenient and flexible, with long term benefits.
The winners are Yusura Aminu Ibrahim and Fathia Usman of Heritage Global Academy, Ikorodu and Adedeji Fuhad and Akerele Semilore of Canterbury International school, Ajah, Lagos State, respectively.
Simi Nwogugu, JAN coordinator, explained that the goal of the competition is to grow beyond the Spelling Bee to a point where students can get understanding of the financial sector. She said: “We are delighted with this partnership as it will enhance our financial literacy programmes. We will provide an electronic platform for all our students to test their understanding of finance and create a signature Money Bee that we believe will be the financial equivalent of the Spelling Bee.”
Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide (JAWW), the world’s largest and fastest-growing not-for-profit economic education organisation, with a 120-country network, dedicated to preparing young people for a successful future. Since inception in 1999, JAN has reached over 900,000 students in over 20,000 classrooms across 30 locations in the country, through over 2,000 volunteers.
Charles Omoera, Stanbic IBTC Trustees Chief Executive, reiterated the financial institution’s commitment to support and strengthen the community through education, leadership, health, environment and charitable conditions.
He said: “At Stanbic IBTC, we have long identified education, a key pillar of our corporate social investment, as pivotal, along with financial literacy, to economic growth and development. Thus, we are always pleased to engage with our future leaders to share financial literacy nuggets with them.
“Our rationale for supporting JAN and the financial literacy competition is simple: JAN is a credible body, and a bellwether of innovation in the financial services industry. We recognise that the competition is a very creative way not only to drive home the financial literacy message but also to measure how well the children are imbibing the principles,” he added.