Capital Market Studies set to be part of basic, secondary schools’ curriculum

By Chioma Obinagwam

There are indications that the proposed stand-alone curriculum on Capital Market Studies, CMS, will soon be infused into carrier subjects in Basic and Secondary Schools in Nigeria.

This indication was given by the Chairperson of the Financial Literacy Technical Committee, FLTC of the Capital Market, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni during an advocacy visit to the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS. Mr. Babatunde Fowler in Abuja, Tuesday.

According to Sanni, “The Committee has worked tirelessly with the National Economic Research and Development Council, NERDC to develop this curriculum. It is now ready and waiting to be infused into the various carrier subjects in upcoming workshops by the Council. We see this as a great step in our financial literacy work.

Sanni also commended the FIRS boss on his initiatives in enlightening students on the benefits of taxation adding that when young people are comfortable with taxation at an early stage, it makes compliance as adults easier.

She restated the commitment of the Committee and the SEC to further educate and enlighten investors in the Nigerian capital market to enhance their ability to make informed investment decisions.

According to her, “This partnership with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), to actualize this ground breaking Capital Market literacy programme, is part of the Capital Market Committee’s effort at vigorously pursuing the implementation of one of the essential initiatives of the 10-year Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan and we are delighted it is coming into fruition soon”.

“We have been in the vanguard of inculcating financial literacy for quite a long time because stakeholders in the capital market realized that it is very important for students to imbibe the culture and habit of being financial literate and to be familiar with the operations of the capital market. We seek to promote the growth of the capital market which remains an essential pillar in the development of the economy.

She said the Committee promotes financial literacy from school age people to business people adding that when people are more financially literate they will be more economic viable and tax revenues will improve.

“There is a clear alignment between the goals of the FIRS and the goals of the financial literacy Technical Committee. Coordinating, in collaboration with the SEC, the introduction of capital market studies into the curriculum of basic and secondary schools in Nigeria” she added.

In his remarks, Executive Chairman of FIRS, Dr. Babatunde Fowler, commended the committee on its achievements and assured that the Service would continue to provide support in any way possible to promote financial literacy in the country.

“We will continue to support you within our capacity as we know that the issue of information dissemination is important in what we are doing. FIRS is always willing to partner on information dissemination which will positively impact on tax revenue in the near future” he added.

The Financial Literacy Technical Committee is a Market wide committee of the capital market set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of the Implementation of the Ten year Capital Market Master Plan.

Constituted in 2016 as a strategy to execute some of the initiatives itemized in the Capital Market Master Plan (CMMP) 2015-2025 around increasing the level of financial literacy, especially capital market literacy, nationwide.