Banks encourage children savings

Banks in Ghana are now encouraging parents to play an important part in teaching their children about saving for a rainy day by helping them open their own savings accounts.

Financial experts say savings is an important part of a healthy financial future. 

They also say it is important to encourage financial literacy as children grow into responsible adults. 

While some banks boast of savings account for children below 18 years of age, including unborn children, others have accounts for children 18 years or older and want to save for the future.  

In this case, the parents / guardian are noted as primary account holders with responsibility for jointly running such accounts until their children become adults and can solely operate their own accounts.

Features

Some of features of these accounts include no monthly service charge, minimum monthly contribution by standing order, competitive interest rates, access to educational loan, no monthly service charge and  access to branded early savers educational gift items

The rest are maximum of two withdrawals per year, no ATM card issued on this account, allows direct debit instruction for payment of the child’s school fees and exclusive membership of early savers club. 

Access Bank boasts of an “Early Savers” account, Stanbic Bank has a generic one for both children and adults known as ‘Pure Save’ and Zenith Children’s Accounts (ZECA) and ZECA Plus. 

Standard Chartered Bank has ‘My Dream Account’ that helps parents or guardians build funds for your child till he or she attains age 18 and takes over the operation of the account. United Bank for Africa ‘U-Care’ savings account is a product targeted at the emotional disposition of parents to save for their children and is designed to support education through primary and secondary school years. 

The Team Lead, Corporate Communications & Brand Management, Access Bank, Nana Adu Kyeremanteng, said the bank’s account was modelled to inculcate the habit of saving from an early age. 

He said it also gave members access to a dedicated team of relationship bankers who assist with our customised financial literacy programme on savings, spending and investment.

“Other benefits include exclusive discounts at strategic partner vendor locations such as Silver bird Cinemas, Papa’s Pizza, Lizzy Sports Complex and EPP Books. It also allows you to make some savings on your income or reinvest this into your child’s account,” he said. 

Savings culture in Ghana 

According to a World Bank research only 29 per cent of Ghanaians own bank accounts. The figure is an indication that Ghanaians do not see the importance of the culture of savings.

Obviously, they are living unsecured lives as they do not own bank accounts or do any investments for the future.

At the launch of the fourth Financial Literacy week under the theme “Financial Literacy: key to a secured Future,” Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms Mona Quartey bemoaned the proliferation of unregulated financial institutions across the country and warned the public to be cautious when dealing with such companies.

“For those who don’t save with regulated companies, if anything goes wrong or if you lose your savings, there is no regulator to back you up or to protect you or give your savings back to you” she warned.

Importance of savings 

Experts say depositing money into a savings account is safer than socking it away in your mattress and that contributing regularly to a savings account is the beginning of achieving the things you want in life.

A savings account is a great way to have a child begin putting money away for higher education or learn a vocation. This money can also be used for textbooks, meals and other costs associated with school. 

It is often hard to determine exactly how much of one’s monthly income should go towards savings but experts recommend that 60 per cent of an individual income go to  needs, 25 per cent to wants and 15 per cent to savings. GB