Nigerians interested in savings must not wait till they have big money before they do so, rather they should start small and grow from there, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has advised.
The Acting Head of the Consumer Protection Department, CBN, Ibrahim Yahaya, gave the advice on Wednesday at the Financial Literacy Fair in Abuja in commemoration of the 2024 World Savings Day celebration.
Yahaya said savings should be taken as a habit no matter the circumstance to have what to fall back to in difficult times in future.
“If you say you need to have plenty before you save, then you will never do it. But if you take it as a habit, keep something aside, no matter the challenges, you will see the importance tomorrow.
“It is very important to save because of eventualities. You know this life is full of a lot of journeys so you need to save in case any issue arise you will be able to have something like a fallback so as to address on in case of those eventualities.
On why school children from secondary schools in Abuja and environs were invited to participate and witness the celebration of the World Savings Day programme, Yahaya said the CBN was celebrating the Day as an international event on October 31 every year with the main objective of promoting the importance of the savings culture.
He said instilling the culture of savings among children and the youth was important to enable them know their right from childhood and grow up with the discipline on how to use money.
Having that discipline at the back of the minds of the children, and even the parents, would promote the idea of savings, in view of the importance of savings to address some future events that may arise.
On the impact of savings on the economy, Yahaya said savings was part of deposits, adding that savings one has in the bank was part of deposits used for lending.
“Lending drives economic growth. So what we have as deposits is what the banks use to lend out to borrowers, especially to the real sector that drives economic growth,” he said.
Reviewing the growth in the savings culture in the Nigerian economy, Yahaya said although the savings culture has significantly improved over time, there was still room for further improvement.
“Over time, the savings culture has improved significantly. If one looks at it from the deposit side, deposit in the banking industry has been on the increase over time.”
He said available statistics with the apex bank showed that about 54 million Nigerian adults have bank accounts recognized by the CBN, representing about 52 percent of the banking adult population in 2023.
Also, he said about another five percent of adult population was captured under the “other formal” financial inclusion category.
It disclosed that of the financially inclusive population in the country, 11 percent were categorized as being informally captured, while 33.9 million, or 32 percent were excluded entirely from the financial system.
On the factors that may discourage the inculcation of the savings culture, he said apart from inflation, there were other events that may discourage people from saving.
“Inflation has always been there. I know it is more challenging these days because of the situation in the economy. But if you take savings as a part of life, as culture, habit and attitude, we will find it very easy. If you have the savings, you will have something to fall back on, and you know how the impact will be in these trying times.
“You see, in the time that we have been on this journey, people’s income, there has always been that agitation that income is never enough to meet our immediate needs and wants. So, it has always been like that. To this end, he urged school children to take savings as a habit.
