R-L: Jude Monye, Executive Director, Heritage Bank Plc; Oluwatoyin Owoade, Experience Centre Associate, Lagos Island, Zone 1; Dr Stephanie Oarhe, Convener, Heart to Heart Foundation; Reverend Chris Oarhe, Co-Convener, Heart to Heart Foundation and Ozena Utulu, Ag. Group Head, Corporate Communication, Heritage Bank, during the bank’s partnership with Heart-to-Heart Foundation conference in Lagos.

In alignment with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Financial Literacy Day, Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s Most Innovative Banking Service provider has joined the rest of the world in the celebration of 2022 Global Money Week.

The 2022 Global Money Week was scheduled to take place from the 21st – 27th of March 2022 and this year marks the 10th anniversary of the annual event with the theme, “Build your future, be smart about money.”

With a series of educational programs lined up for the celebration, Heritage Bank was able to raise awareness amongst over 10,000 teens and youths across the 36 states and improve the capabilities of young people to make sound decisions when it comes to financial matters to secure their futures.

One of the activities to herald this year’s GMW was the partnership with the Heart-to-Heart Foundation on building successful families by educating married couples, counselling teens and young adults and holding awareness campaigns and to enlighten them on Financial Literacy.

The Executive Director, Jude Monye reiterated Heritage Banks’ commitments to further entrench financial inclusion, seeing financial literacy as a key enabler in the bank’s quest to driving financial inclusion, which could also be achieved when young Nigerians are properly educated on the importance of making sound decisions on money matters.

Speaking at the Heart-to-Heart conference titled, “The Cheating Mind,” Ozena Utulu, Ag. Group Head, Corporate Communications stressed the importance of financial intelligence, as this would aid in securing the future of the young ones, enable them to make better financial choices, create a sense of responsibility with money which would in turn finance their skills in the future.

She added that to make money, time management is imperative and should be well understood.

Utulu advised the youths to “start saving now, make the right choices while spending money by creating a budget, identify the needs and wants and also imbibe the culture of savings, be smart about how money is spent and spend money wisely.”

Utulu disclosed to the youths that money was exchanged in the past by trade by barter, which today cash, cheque books, Automated Money transfer, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Card amongst other are in use today.

She disclosed that Heritage Bank as part of engendering saving culture, Heritage Bank would assist commence saving with the various account opening packages like the Bud account for students and Tier 1 account for young adults.

Also speaking at the event, the Co-convener, Heart to Heart Foundation, Dr. Stephine Oarhe commended Heritage Bank for being at the forefront to instil financial knowledge and saving culture amongst the young generation.

She admonished parents not to entrust their responsibilities to children and allow them grow before assuming the adult responsibilities.

He advised the students were further advised to focus on themselves as they ensure they are better than who they were yesterday.