Growing the saving culture in the child through FirstBank’s KidsFirst

First Bank of Nigeria created KidsFirst account to encourage parents teach their children how to operate banking accounts at an early age.  AMAKA IFEAKANDU looks at First Bank’s effort to strengthen parents’ ability to achieve their kids’ financial independence  from infancy.

In this era of digitization, opening a saving account for a child at early stage of life is a good way of introducing saving culture and  budgeting concept.

A  Kid-focused savings account provides the  child with a glimpse into how banks work and give  them a place to store allowances and birthday gift given to them by relatives and family friends.

This  offers them the opportunity to know how to grow money in savings account whenever they have accumulated funds.

However, having the appropriate bank account underpins a child’s budgeting skills as they can watch their pocket money grows and allocates savings towards different goals. 

Getting kids to open a bank account so they can manage their pocket money themselves is a great way to help build healthy financial habits.

With the little savings, the eventual purchase of a toy or game or other treat acts as a great incentive for kids to keep going.

Reasons for opening Kids’ Account

Parents opening bank accounts for their kids enable them to learn the importance of saving money  and have that financial responsibility from an early age. 

Apart from helping the parents  save for the child’s future education, the account offers the beneficiary children an opportunity to learn how bank works when they grow up and take charge of running the account. It also makes it easy for the child to learn to  save money for his or her personal needs.

By depositing money in their accounts, they will learn to plan for future purchases which may include a trip to the bank to access the money. This is one skill that will benefit them for the rest of their life.

The most interesting thing is that many of the kids’ account don’t have minimum opening deposits and even majority have zero monthly maintenance fees which means  children’s money earns interest even faster

It is   necessary that before parents could open an account for their kids, they should  take some time to find out the best bank to open the account for the child. The essence of it is to ensure the account  earns interest and grows  since the child will run the account for longer period starting from childhood to adulthood. 

First Bank’s KidsFirst Account

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, leading financial inclusion services provider  created KidsFirst Account to encourage the right saving culture among children.

It is one of the ways by which FirstBank inspires parents to intentionally teach their children  about money by opening a KidsFirst account for them at any of its branches across the country.

The Bank, through the account, eases parent’s ability to achieve financial independence for  their kids from toddler age, while securing their future and exposing them to savings culture.

Why the account created

The KidsFirst account was created in recognition of the need to help a child embrace the culture of financial responsibility and grow up with it into teenagers and to adult hoods.

Requirements for account opening 

No minimum balance requirement or monthly maintenance fees: Children should see saving as a good thing and not have fees diminish what they put into their accounts.

 Description

The account puts your children on their way to financial independence with the KidsFirst savings account designed for children between the ages of 0-12 to show them how exciting saving can be.

The account comes with a trendy gift item for the child when the account is opened with a minimum of N10,000.00. 

The KidsFirst account is opened and operated by the parent/guardian, giving you total control over the financial security of your child/ward.

With this account, your child also gets to enjoy fun activities such as cool treasure hunts, cinema events and much more all year round, courtesy of FirstBank.

Features

This type of account is opened in the child’s name and operated by the parent/guardian. The account attracts Zero account opening balance and it is Automatic Transition to MeFirst account when the child attains the age of 13. A debit card is issued to the parent / guardian if they request for one. The account is of  ease and convenience of online banking,  while Cheques/Dividend warrant of up to N2 million can be lodged into the account.

There would be trendy gift item for the child when the account is opened with a minimum of N10,000. The account also has Standing order on the payment of tuition/other fees for the child.

Digital working

And more than any other thing, the operation of the  KidsFirst Account  would be aided by the FirstBank’s digitization process which has gained a lot of ground across the country and beyond.  For instance, through its effort  at promoting digital payment in the country, FirstBank has issued over 10million cards, the first bank to achieve such milestone in the country. Also, FirstBank’s cashless transaction drive extends to having more than 9million people on its USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code and over 3 million people on FirstMobile platform.

Since its establishment in 1894, FirstBank has consistently built relationships with customers focusing on the fundamentals of good corporate governance, strong liquidity, optimised risk management and leadership. Over the years, the Bank has led the financing of private investment in infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy by playing key roles in the Federal Government’s privatisation and commercialisation schemes.

These, among several  others, is one of the benefits the KidsFirst Account  holders stand to benefit when operational.

Innovation delights FBN

Speaking on the novel idea,  FirstBank’s Deputy Managing Director  Gbenga Shobo said: “We are delighted with the role we play in promoting financial literacy amongst children and teenagers in the country. Our KidsFirst  accounts are designed to ensure that parents and guardians are able to have their wards exposed to the right savings culture and financial discipline as they evolve to adulthood.”   

With the  account, he said parents are able to save and strengthen their preparedness for various financial obligations of their children like paying for school fees as they progress with their academic pursuit which is pivotal to securing the future of the children.


In all, Kids savings account typically requires a parent  to have joint ownership, meaning that parents can manage the finances until the children grew up to fund the account  themselves.

First Bank KidsFirst Account has helped parents to achieve  financial independence of their kids from toddler age, while securing their future and exposing them to savings culture and inculcating  in them savings culture.