CBN to release financial literacy curriculum next year

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Monday that the curriculum that would be used to teach the concept of financial literacy in schools would be released next year.

The CBN Director, Consumer Protection Department, Hajiya Umma Dutse, said this during an event to mark the Global Money Week in Abuja.

The Global Money Week is a money awareness celebration that takes place between March 10 and 17 every year to engage children globally in learning the concept of savings and investment.

She said the bank was currently working with the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Education Research Council and other stakeholders in the capital market, insurance and pensions industry to ensure that financial literacy was integrated into the Nigerian school curriculum by 2015.

Dutse said the central bank was concerned about the high level of financial exclusion in the country, noting that plans had reached an advanced stage to deploy strategies to address it.

She said, 'This programme is specifically targeted at school children to raise their awareness and the CBN in conjunction with other stakeholders in the financial literacy steering committee and the Ministry of Education is developing the financial literacy curriculum to be included in the Nigerian school system, so that we can develop the children.

'The idea is educating children about the knowledge and skills and it will help them to manage their finances when they grow up. Like I said, we have different programmes for different phases; this is not about nomination or anything but basically targeting school children and the youth in Nigeria.

'There is a major gap we have identified; even though there are many subjects, there is no particular subject that is teaching financial literacy in our school system. We are developing this curriculum to be integrated into the Nigerian school curriculum so that we start teaching our school children financial literacy. By the grace of God and the rate we are going, by the end of this year, hopefully by 2015, we will be taking off.'

Represented at the event by the Assistant Director, Consumer Protections Department, Mr. Ibrahim Hassan, she said the central bank's financial inclusion strategy specifically targeted pupils in order to raise their level of awareness.