Prominent people occupying important pubic offices look forward to retiring to equally big positions commensurate with their status. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is an exception.

Thirty-two years since he last taught in a secondary school, Sanusi today, September 30, 2013, taught selected students financial literacy, but he did even more – he disclosed to them his wish to to become a teacher for life after retirement.

The CBN Governor made the disclosure while teaching at the Model Secondary School, Maitama, Abuja. The well-attended event, which was organised by the Consumer Protection Department of CBN in conjunction with the Junior Achievement (Nigeria), a non-governmental organisation, and the FCT Secondary Education Board, drew students from four secondary schools in the FCT.

Sanusi was in his elements as he took the excited students through the rudiments of financial education, with the key message of planning their spending and saving. The CBN Governor opened the lecture with the short history of himself being a secondary school teacher last in 1982, in Yola, then Gongola State, as a youth corps member. He said that the lecture, entitled “Money Matters”, was aimed at educating the children to plan their spending and saving. He noted that money was never an end in itself, but a means to an end, as the children would need money to pay school fees, buy things they want and eventually bear responsibilities.

The financial management expert warned that people could become poor when they spend more than they earn, and would conversely, become wealthy when they spend less than they earn.

He noted that most children nowadays struggle with what he called ‘peer pressure’, which he said always pushes them to making unjustifiable demands from their parents, who also have needs and responsibilities to take care of.

Sanusi urged the students to always ‘pay’ themselves by making sure they save at least 10% of what they earn, as expenditures of buying things and paying rents for example, amount to paying others. Speaking on the setting of short, medium and long terms goals, he enumerated different ways of saving as well as the risks and benefits associated with each.

The CBN Governor concluded the lecture by introducing the children to other aspects of financial education, including insurance, pension, stock broking and deposit insurance. He urged them to avail themselves of the opportunities in all of these.

Earlier in her address, Director, FCT Secondary Education Board, Mrs. Fatima Baba, expressed delight at the CBN’s partnership with secondary schools, saying that teaching subjects that would prepare children to become self-reliant is cost-intensive. She lauded the interventions of the Bank, which included the renovation of the multimillion naira multi-purpose hall on the premises of the Model Secondary School, Maitama.

Four public schools participated in the event, namely; Junior Secondary School, Idi-koro; Junior Secondary Karu; Junior Secondary School Model, Maitama; and Model Secondary School Maitama.

•Photo shows CBN Governor Sanusi teaching the students . . . today in Abuja.

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