Banking
Heritage Bank Teaches Children Savings Culture
By Dipo Olowookere
In its continuous bid to expose the citizenry to financial literacy at very early age in life, Heritage Bank Plc, Nigeria’s Most Innovative Banking Services Provider, joined the world in celebrating the World Savings’ Day with the theme: Our Future Starts with Savings.
The World Savings Day stresses the ingenuity of savings to economic development, which is in line with the bank’s financial literacy programme aimed at introducing its financial literacy edutainment resources to children and young persons under its BUD proposition, was held at the Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Ojo in Lagos.
The MD/CEO of the bank, Mr Ifie Sekibo, emphasized the importance of savings both modern economies and for individuals- young and old alike to attain a higher standard of life and secure the economy.
He stated that Heritage Bank’s involvement in the World Savings celebration was a demonstration of the bank’s commitment to innovation.
According to him, children are very special to us at Heritage Bank, hence we decided to celebrate today with them in a unique way that offers the opportunity to have fun and learn about bank savings.
Mr Sekibo noted that for early positioning of children for global and local relevance, there was need to teach them on how to prioritize savings over spending, which is a valuable life lesson and one that takes time to learn.
According to him, opening a savings account for a child is one of the best ways to introduce him/her to that concept of saving at an early age.
He explained that one of the ways the bank has continued to promote savings amongst children is the introduction of “My day as a banker” which is also the Heritage Bank’s unique way of promoting financial literacy among children, which is the core of the HB Bud Savings Account, specially designed to promote savings habit among children and youths.
In line with its mission to create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations, he said Heritage Bank developed the HB Bud Savings Account to help its customers to create wealth for the children and provide them a future of financial independence.
Team Lead, Financial Literacy, Customer Experience & Analytics, Heritage Bank, Ajiri Efeturi led the 174 secondary school students in attendance on how to save effectively and how to cultivate good saving habits talked on the need to be financially literate in a bid to ensure that one could manage his money effectively as well as make one more responsible and being able to plan for a secured future.
She differentiated between needs and wants, remarking that needs are what one needs to survive while wants are those things which one would like to have but could really do without.
She also gave some tips on smart spending: make a list of everything you want but always be smart about how one spends his money and the need to be a price detective by comparing prices from different stores.
Efeturi, who enjoined not to give more than they had, but keep some money as savings for the future, also introduced them to the Heritage BUD account for children.
According to her, some of the good habits of the account are the need to cultivate the habit of saving, having a financial plan and budget and the need to set aside about 10 percent of their pocket money or cash gifts as savings as well as avoidance of impulsive spending.
On the bad habits of money, Team member, Financial Literacy, Customer Experience & Analytics, Heritage Bank, Chinenyenwa Ozoemena, advised the children to avoid borrowing money, buying stuffs on credit, taking money that is not your own and spending money at once disposal without saving.
Every year, Heritage Bank directly impacts about 350 primary and secondary schools across the country in recognition of the pivotal role children play as the leaders of tomorrow.
Heritage Bank has imparted financial education on more than over 1,500 schools across the country since commencing its financial literacy programme two years ago, as part of its social corporate responsibility.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The six edition of the Hackaholics of Wema Bank Plc has produced 20 top finalists shared equally between two streams, Ideathon and Hackathon.
The Hackathon finalists are Rapid DEV, Secure IT, Neurafeed, Trust Lock Babcock, Pulse Track, IlluminiTrust, Trust Lock FUTA, Fix Fraud AI, KASH Flow and VOC AI.
The Ideathon finalists include PLOY, Fertitude, VarsityScape, Mama ALERT, StockMed, Chao, All Arbitrate, FarmSlate, Sane AI and Cycle X.
They emerged after a two-day pre-pitch held on December 16 and 17, 2025, for the grand finale slated for Friday, December 19, 2025.
They grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0 will convene the top players in Africa’s tech and innovation ecosystem, creating an avenue for these finalists to not only put their creativity to the ultimate test but also give their solutions visibility to potential investors for additional funding opportunities beyond the prizes to be won.
The prizes to be won for the Ideathon include N25 million for the winner, N20 million for the first runner-up, N15 million for the second runner-up and N5 million each for two women-led teams.
In the Hackathon category, the first to fourth-place winners will receive N20 million, N15 million, N10 million and N5 million, respectively.
The pre-pitch saw the top 43 contenders battle in a game of innovation and problem solving, presenting compelling pitches for a chance to make it to top 10 in their respective streams.
After a rigorous stretch of pitches and presentations, the top 20 emerged, securing their spot in the grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0.
“Hackaholics started off as a hackathon and morphed into an ideation. For Hackaholics 6.0, the sixth edition, we decided to give both the builders of new solutions and the refiners of existing ones, an opportunity to make meaningful impact.
“For us at Wema Bank, we understand that innovation isn’t just building from scratch. Sometimes, it’s looking at what exists and developing new ways to optimise that and create more efficiency. This is the idea behind our two-stream Ideathon-Hackathon structure.
“Every year, Hackaholics shows us just how eager and motivated Nigerian youth are when it comes to exploring creativity and innovation, and we are honoured to be the institution that provides them with the platform and resources to put this drive to good use.
“We toured seven cities, indulged 1,460 participants and discovered hundreds of remarkable ideas; some of which needed some refining and some of which deserved to move to the next stage.
“For those who needed to go back to the drawing board, we provided useful guidance and for the top contenders, we were able to shortlist to the top 43, who proceeded to the pre-pitch. To every participant, Wema Bank is proud of you. This is just the beginning,” the chief executive of Wema Bank, Mr Moruf Oseni, said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it will enforce penalties against designated banks that delay the remittance of customs revenue, in a move aimed at strengthening transparency and safeguarding government earnings.
This was disclosed in a statement on the NCS official account on X, formerly known as Twitter and signed by its spokesman, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, who said the delays undermine the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“The Nigeria Customs Service has noted instances of delayed remittance of customs revenue by some designated banks following reconciliation of collections processed through the B’odogwu platform,” the statement read.
“Such delays constitute a breach of remittance obligations and negatively impact the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“In line with the provisions of the Service Level Agreement executed between the Nigeria Customs Service and designated banks, the Service hereby notifies stakeholders of the commencement of enforcement actions against banks found to be in default of agreed remittance timelines.”
Mr Maiwada disclosed that any bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed timeline will be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the period of the delay.
He added that affected banks would be formally notified of the delayed amounts, the applicable penalty, and the deadline for settlement.
“Accordingly, any designated bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed period shall be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the duration of the delay.
“Affected banks will receive formal notifications indicating the delayed amount, applicable penalty, and the timeline for settlement,” the statement read.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The deputy managing director of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited, Mr Ini Ebong, has offloaded some shares of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent firm of the banking institution.
A regulatory notice from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited confirmed the development on Thursday.
It was disclosed that the transaction occurred on Friday, December 12, 2025, on the floor of the stock exchange.
The sale involved about 11.8 million shares, precisely 11,783,333 units traded at N31.14 per share, amounting to about N366.9 million.
Mr Ebong, who studied Architecture from University of Ife and obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees, became the DMD of First Bank in June 2024. Prior to this appointment, he was Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking since January 2022.
He was previously the Group Executive, Treasury and International Banking, a position he held since 2016 after serving as the bank’s Treasurer from 2011 to 2016.
Before joining First Bank, he was the Head of African Fixed Income and Local Markets Trading, Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian registered subsidiary of Renaissance Capital. He also worked with Citigroup for 14 years as Country Treasurer and Sales and Trading Business Head.
He has a passion for market development and has worked actively to drive change and internationalisation of the Nigerian financial markets: foreign exchange, fixed income and securities.
He has worked closely with regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) in assisting with the development of fresh monetary and foreign exchange policies, to broaden and deepen markets and open them up to international practices.
At various times he has facilitated and delivered courses and seminars on a wide variety of subjects covering Money Markets, Securities and Foreign exchange trading and market risk management subjects to regulators, corporate customers, banks and market participants.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking7 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn