This is as the campaign to create awareness among the youths
and young people and further attract them to the capital market gathers
momentum, Director, Market Development Department of the SEC, Mr. Nestor Ikeagu
stated this weekend during the celebration of the Global Money week 2023
enlightenment campaign to School for the Gifted, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Global Money Week (GMW) is an annual global awareness
raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people from an early
age are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills,
attitudes and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and
ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience.
The SEC Director said that the official theme for Global
Money Week 2023 is “Plan your money, plant your future”, adding that this year,
GMW focuses on sustainability and raising awareness on the implications of
individual financial behavior not only on one’s financial future but also on
the environment and the society.
Ikeagu stated that there are various products available in
the capital market that could appeal to the youths and urged them to plan, save
and invest in the capital market.
According to him, “It is also important to educate these
young minds that as they plant their future, they should be mindful of some
fraudulent activities such as “Ponzi scheme”, that can mar the growth of that
financial future.
“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising
high rates of return with little risk to investors. It is a fraudulent
investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken
from later investors. It involves paying existing investors in a non-existing
enterprise with the funds collected from new investors”.
Ikeagu added that there is a list of registered fund
managers on the website of the SEC and urged members of the public to always
cross check that entities are registered for the products they are offering to
the public.
Mrs. Ngozi Obi, Senior Manager Financial Inclusion Department
of the SEC, told the students GMW is an annual event enlightening the youth on
saving money to invest for the future via the capital market.
She said, “It is an annual global awareness raising campaign
on the importance of ensuring that young people from an early age are
financially aware and are gradually acquiring knowledge and skills, attitude,
behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve
financial well-being and financial resilience.
“The aim of our visit here today is to create awareness to
the youth as part of the financial literacy to educate the youth and get them
acquainted with the financial culture to enable them make informed decisions
before investments” she stated.
Speaking earlier, Principal of the School, Dr. Rilwan
Abubakar expressed appreciation to the SEC for choosing the school for the
awareness campaign saying that it is a special day for the students who stand
to benefit a lot to enable them learn how to invest.
“We are very excited that the SEC has decided to hold this
event in our school. It is a global money week with the aim educating the youth
on finances and create awareness to be financially disciplined, and we know our
students will benefit greatly from this”.