Uchechukwu Nnaike
As part of efforts to expose the younger generation to the world of finance, saving, and investment, Cordros Asset Management recently organised the ‘Every Child a Milestone Debate Competition’ for students of Corona Day Secondary School.
The second edition of the competition, held in Lagos, was also to commemorate Children’s Day.
The students debated ‘Equities investment: A Better Path to Sustainable Wealth Compared to Fixed Income Investment’.
A paper titled ‘Investing with the right attitude’ was also presented at the event. It highlighted the tenets of investing, the ‘don’t dos’ of investing, and the benefits of investing.
At the end of the competition, Nicolette Azonobo and Miebi Abulu, members of Team A, emerged as the winners with 628 points and received a cheque of N100,000.
Azonobo, who expressed delight about winning the competition, said the programme gave her an open range of career paths to try and more things to choose from in the future.
Another student, Fopeyemi Ayinla, said, “I learnt that we should invest our money so that in the future we will have enough to enjoy ourselves.”
In his remarks, the Group Executive Director, Cordros, Femi Ademola, said, “We want to introduce ambassadorial roles for schools, to create investment clubs for schools, but before doing that, we want to train those who will be part of these goals to understand the intricacies.”
He said the event was an opportunity for the children to get into the knowledge world, understand savings and investment and have some level of introduction to these things, adding that “when you teach young people to invest, it helps them so that when they are out of school, they can think out of the box.”
According to Ademola, the company hopes to have a more elaborate programme next year and bring more schools to debate. He also pledged N50,000 as a personal gift to the winners.
The Managing Director of Cordros Asset Management, Gbolahan Aina, said, “As part of our contribution to society, we know that financial literacy is very important. A lot of people have lost money in the past, not because they wanted to lose it but because they do not understand what they were investing in.”
He noted that if people could invest right, it would help the country’s economy to grow, stressing, “We believe if we can educate people, especially starting with the young ones, the incidence of a lot of people losing money will be reduced.”
