FutureFirst
The FutureFirst programme is designed to drive financial literacy, career counselling and entrepreneurship for young ones. We work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) to implement FutureFirst projects. JAN’s programme aligns with the FutureFirst’s vision and based on the curriculum, we have positively impacted students in different locations across the country. Through our partnership with JAN, senior secondary school students were provided with practical business experience through the organisation and operation of an after-school business enterprise incubation programme.
Benefits
- The program offers an experiential supplement to the students’ business and economics studies.
- It provides insights into how businesses are organized and operated; develop critical thinking, speaking and leadership skills
- Understanding the rewards of the free enterprise system
- Learning about career opportunities, and gain basic workforce readiness skills.
- The program also fosters a positive relationship between young people and the business community.
JAN Program
The JAN program is also connected to the Company of the Year (COY) competition. COY, sponsored by FirstBank, is a competition organized to promote financial inclusion, creativity, entrepreneurship, collective thinking and teamwork amongst secondary school students, whilst driving their preparedness for university education and subsequent stages of life. This program is aimed at influencing the economic growth and development in the respective Junior Achievement Worldwide member countries and the world at large.
The Inventive Explorers Challenge
The Inventive Explorers from Caro Favoured School, Ajegunle in Nigeria won three different categories: Regional Company of the Year (RCOY), National Company of the Year (NCOY), and Company of the Year (COY) Africa competitions. The latter took place in Accra, Ghana on Friday, December 8, 2018. The Inventive Explorers won the competitions with an inventive user-friendly and portable mobile traffic light designed to reduce accidents. The team was equally awarded the Coca-Cola Excellence in Teamwork Awards and the FedEx Access Award, for having a business that best demonstrates the ability to transcend national borders.
FutureFirst Impact
The FutureFirst program has impacted over 80,000 secondary students, across different parts of the country including Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja with knowledge of financial literacy and entrepreneurship. This programme recruited staff volunteers from the Bank expending over 38,000 volunteering hours
