E-Financial
Financial Literacy: Stanbic IBTC Educates Preteens, Teenagers
In a bid to increase financial literacy amongst the younger generation, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, recently held virtual sessions to educate preteens and teenagers on how to develop a savings and investment culture.
Through its New School Money Initiative, the organisation aims to improve and deepen the financial knowledge of Nigerian children.
This year’s event which was held virtually is the fourth in its series and was themed “The Art of Money: Earn, Save and Invest”.
Representatives from Stanbic IBTC shed more light on subjects to distinguish between wants and needs, assets and liabilities as well as the importance of making the right financial decisions. These were communicated using simple relatable videos and illustrations.
The wealth certified professionals demonstrated different ways of achieving financial goals and meeting unexpected needs such as emergency savings, budgeting and investing, amongst others.
A total of 703 participants attended the sessions in the three age categories. 53 wealth facilitators selected across the group from various regions of operations also delivered to the exciting sessions cut across 18 virtual classrooms. Interactions recorded through the sessions were a total of 2,166 comments.
Obinna Lewis-Asonye, Zonal Head, Micro Pension and Agency, Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers, who anchored one of the sessions, emphasised that earning money is the first step towards financial freedom, followed by budgeting and investing.
He stressed that participants should inculcate a savings plan to enable them to keep their money safe while it grows with interest.
He said: “To get more money, you must limit your withdrawal so that your interest can grow.”
Other representatives of Stanbic IBTC emphasised the need to cultivate the habit of saving and investing as a guarantee towards becoming financially independent.
According to them, it is important to consider the kind of investments that suits your needs, be it long, medium, or short time.
They added that a better future is assured by investing in government bonds, treasury bills, mutual funds and commercial papers, amongst others.
The hosts described the initiative as essential in imparting financial education in the younger generation while strengthening their financial management skills and enhancing their understanding of financial matters. They further encouraged Nigerian children to engage in meaningful ventures to generate income as a first step towards making money.
150 winners emerged across the sessions from the various tasks which were completed and were all awarded with Stanbic IBTC Mutual Funds as prizes.
Speaking on the continuity of the initiative, Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, Head, Marketing and Communications, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, said that the session will be an annual event as part of the organisation’s goal to continually increase the number of financial literate individuals across the country.
Oyefeso-Odusami highlighted the importance of the initiative, noting that financial literacy should begin from an early stage for easy attainment of financial freedom.
She emphasised the importance of the customers’ journey with respect to the offerings of the organisation being an end-to-end financial services provider.
“One way to build a well-rounded adult is to catch them young. If we can inculcate financial literacy and investment culture into these young ones, we know that we will have financially enlightened adults tomorrow. At Stanbic IBTC, we want a future filled with smart, intelligent and financially enlightened leaders, hence we took this initiative,” she added.
LemFi, a remittance startup, has acquired Bureau Buttercrane, the Irish currency exchange platform.
In a statement on Wednesday, LemFi announced that it had obtained regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to acquire Bureau Buttercrane.
The deal will enable Lemfi to use its Irish licence to operate across the European Economic Area (EEA) and unlock new growth opportunities.
Ridwan Olalere, chief executive officer (CEO), Lemfi, said the acquisition was driven by the need to secure the right regulatory framework for the company’s expansion in Europe.
“Rather than focusing on [Buttercane’s] tech stack or profitability, the acquisition was driven by our need to secure the right regulatory framework for our expansion,” Olalere said.
“We already have the technology; this was a strategic acquisition to ensure smooth and compliant operations across Europe.
“Europe is a big, complicated market with different payment methods, rules, and preferences across countries. We’re optimistic about growth, but it’s a challenging landscape.”
The acquisition comes almost three weeks after Lemfi secured $53 million in a Series B funding round to expand its operations to new countries.
Last year, the company expanded its international payment services to Brazil and Mexico.
The insurance sector in the third quarter 2024, posted Gross Premium written of N1.173 trillion against N1.003 trillion gross premium it posted in 2023.
Similarly, the sector grew its assets to N3.388 trillion against N2.7 trillion assets growth in 2023. With these achievements, the sector successfully sustained its growth trajectory at 60.9 per cent year-on-year and 44.3 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
This is contained in the latest publication of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on the industry’s performance tagged, “Bulletin of the Insurance Market Performance Q3 2024.”
NAICOM in the publication said the insurance sector showed resilience amid macro-economic challenges.
The commission said the N1.173.1billion gross written premium was a remarkable occasion attributable to the consistent deepening policy of the commission and market resilience.
According to the commission, the performance was majorly led by the non-life sector, which recorded a market share of 68.9 per cent for a total volume of N808.4billion while the life segment accounted for 31.1 per cent of the market premium aggregate.
The industry statistics reveals that the market has achieved a substantial higher rate of growth compared to the national output (GDP) which grew at 3.5 per cent during the period under review, signifying its impressive performance and potential propensity.
The Non-Life segment maintained its dominance, accounting for 68.9 per cent of the total premium generated during the period, closely aligning with its 69.1 percent share in the previous quarter.
Within this segment, the report said the Oil & Gas portfolio led with a 35.2 per cent contribution, followed by Fire Insurance at 21.3 per cent, Motor Insurance also accounted for 14.4 per cent while Marine & Aviation, General Accident, and Miscellaneous contributed 12.4 percent, 9.0 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.
According to the report, the life business on the other hand contributed 31.1 per cent of the total premium, gradually increasing its proportional share of the industry’s gross premium.
“Analysis of the Life Insurance segment also shows that, Annuity business accounted for 31.8 percent of the total gross premium, while Individual Life business led with about 41.8 percent contribution of all the life insurance premiums during the quarter,” the report said.
The report said notwithstanding the experiments within the financial services sector, underwriters exhibited undoubted certainty and confidence, as reflected in the robust retention levels across the market.
On claims payment, the report maintained that the improvements in claims management of the industry has served as driver for expansion in gross claims reported in Q3 2024, reaching N564.1 billion which is representative of about 48.1 per cent of the total premiums generated during the period.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has directed the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to debit the settlement accounts of commercial banks that receive fraud proceeds.
This is in an effort to curb fraud in the financial services sector,
So starting this month, CBN instructed the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System to deduct from the accounts of any commercial bank that ends up with fraudulent proceeds.
NIBSS, incorporated in 1993, owned by all licensed banks including the Central Bank of Nigeria and it clearing house, handling inter-bank payments in order to remove potential bottlenecks associated with inter-bank funds transfer and settlement.
According to the CBN, if a bank doesn’t catch a fraudulent transaction or if they can’t prove they did their due diligence, they will get charged.
This is meant to push banks to step up their fraud detection game and is heavily leaning on the whole Know Your Customer (KYC) thing, which we all know is crucial for keeping the system secure.
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