Miss Gbenjo Olasubomi, a 15 year old pupil of Good Shepherd Comprehensive High School, Lagos state, yesterday emerged winner of the 2017 edition of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Essay Competition for Senior Secondary Schools students In Nigeria.
Olasubomi clinched the first position ahead of over 10,000 participants across the country, winning N500,000 in Scholarship fund for university education and N250,000 worth of equity investment.
Delivering a keynote speech on “Building a financially savvy generation”, Former Minister of Eductaion, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, noted that the African continent for decades had recorded appalling economic performance due to poor financial literacy.
She explained that the easier way for African countries to break out of the poverty tag syndrome, was to arm the younger generation with the tools of financial literacy, adding that wealth education is critical and has proven to be a tool of economic mobility.
“If we are going to break out of poverty quicker than we have done, we must inculcate in the younger generation the tools and sense of financial literacy because for too long we have remained the poorest region”
“Education has proven that in modern history ,it is the fastest tool of socio and economic mobility of the human race and every country that has climbed out of poverty has done so on the back of improvement in human capital”, Ezekwesili said.
According to her, “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is correlated to the level of literacy and a country with high literacy attracts foreign investment. In terms of the level of literacy, Singapore is 100 per cent, Rwanda has managed 72 per cent while Nigeria has scored 58 per cent, so we need more investment to bridge the gap on infrastructure”
Earlier in his opening remark, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Oscar Onyema, said the Exchange remains committed to advancing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will continue to raise the level of financial literacy in Nigeria.