FutureFirst
There is no doubt that at FirstBank, the future is our most present priority. It is on this premise coupled with our commitment to promote financial inclusion in the country that we have consistently been implementing the ‘FutureFirst” programme. It is a unique programme designed to ensure youth of the nation are financially independent through fulfilling careers and the right financial knowledge. The programme is built around Career Counselling, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship.
The aim of the Career Counselling is to guide the students appropriately towards making the right career choices to prevent the wrong career move in future which could have long-term negative effects.
The Bank execute the career counselling through various activities such as Youth Empowerment Series (3.0), UI Career Fair, etc. which are designed to equip school students with the knowledge needed for career planning and fulfilment.
The Financial Literacy pillar is structured to empower secondary students with the requisite financial knowledge such as access to quality financial education to enable them make informed choices on money matters and take effective actions for their financial wellbeing.
Financial literacy is partly executed through our participation in the Global Money Week and World Savings Day. A day set-aside by the CBN, which is mandated to all banks to adopt over 30 assigned schools across the 6 geo-political zones in Nigeria to ensure financial inclusion for the unbanked. The Bank delivers a teaching module in these schools to inculcate the savings culture in them which is designed by Junior Achievement Nigeria.
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.
We partner with Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN), a non-profit organisation to implement our FutureFirst programmme. JAN’s programme aligns with FutureFirst’s vision and based on the curriculum, we have positively assisted students in different locations across the country. Through our partnership with JAN, senior secondary school students were provided with practical business experience under three pillars of financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.
The programme offers an experiential supplement to the students’ business and economics studies. It provides insights to how businesses are organised and operated; develop critical thinking, speaking and leadership skills; understand the rewards of the free enterprise system; learn about career opportunities; and gain basic workforce-readiness skills. The programme also fosters a positive relationship between young people and the business community.
Over the years, we have actively supported, participated and volunteered in the implementation of their various experiential programmes especially in the Company of the Year (COY) Programme.
The COY programme brings secondary students together to form a company, choose a business name and elect company officers to oversee operations of the company for the program duration. It teaches students to put theory into practice in order to fully understand what financial literacy and entrepreneurship is. At the end of the program, the students that complete the program successfully will compete in the regional competition and will represent their school in the National Company of the Year competition in Lagos. The winning school will go on to represent Nigeria in the African Regional Company of the year competition with other JA Member Nations in Africa.
Consistently, the Bank has been sponsoring the National Company of the Year (NCOY) Competition as well as in the Africa level.
The TC Achievers from Taidob College Abeokuta, Ogun state in Nigeria emerging as the winners of the Regional Company of the Year (RCOY) and the National Company of the Year (NCOY), competed with 10 other Junior Achievement member countries in Africa, notably from the Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland), Ghana, Zambia, Gabon, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Botswana, Kenya and South Africa at the COY Africa competition held in Accra, Ghana on Friday, December 6, 2019. The TC Achievers won four wards which includes Client Focus Award, Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, Facilitator of the Year Award and was second runner up, Company of the Year Award at the competition with an inventive Gas Leakage Detector which would go a very long way at solving the problem of fire outbreaks due to gas leakages in homes, offices, and industries.
The FutureFirst programme has impacted over 85,000 secondary students, across the regions 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 40,000 volunteering hours.
