Financial illiteracy results in poor financial inclusion. Non-financial inclusion becomes a threat to the survival of the Nigerian financial sector as most adults and young Nigerians are financially excluded from the formal financial sector. A high percentage of adult Nigerians don’t have bank accounts, and this in the long run becomes a big headache for central banking.

The rate of illiteracy in this country is still high. According to the UNESCO’s information in its last record of 2010, we still have over 53 per cent who are still illiterate in Nigeria. The answer to that question is straightforward: we don’t have enough adult educators in this country. To have enough Adult Educators, it means at every local government, you must have between five and 10 Adult Educators in the various ministries or secretariats. The Adult Educators in this country have not been able to permeate all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, and that is why the level of illiteracy is still there.

The Global Monitoring Report on Education-for-All (EFA) of 2012, rated Nigeria as one of the two countries; the other being Egypt with the largest number of illiterates in Africa.

You know Nigerians are very literal people, what they see is what they take in

If you want to be rich, you need to be financially literate.

So if you want to be rich and maintain your wealth, it’s important to be financially literate, in words as well as numbers.

The bad thing about us (Nigerians) is that, once we perceive any opportunity, business or profession as lucrative, everybody wants to go into it, whether or not they have the experience, training or the knowledge about it. I always tell them that if you don’t learn it properly, you can’t know it.’

I am told that when you ask any child what they want to become, they say, footballer, yahoo-yahoo person, kidnapper/bandits, comedian or LGA chairman: the easiest way out of illiteracy to make easy money in Nigeria.

Illiteracy, both in words and numbers, is the foundation of financial struggle.

Lots of literacy in modern society, but not enough numeracy.

A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate

I have always believed that one of the biggest problems we have in Nigeria is having the wrong orientation, the wrong mindset towards life, which has aided corruption, high crime rate and an increase in unemployment. Our youths have misplacement of priority and most of them are lazy both in reasoning and creativity, they just want to get quick money. Self-discovery is a major key in accomplishing great things in life and through my NGO.

There are several challenges facing education generally in Nigeria. There has been a steady decline in standards in the visual arts, as in other disciplines. Today, there are very poor facilities for teaching art in almost all art schools in Nigeria.

Nigerians are not looking for a handout, what they need is the space and they will do the rest. People are really entrepreneurial, so for us as a country, it’s not for lack of human assets or the passion or desire to progress, it is about lack of good policy, good governance around economics, and making the environment conducive so that all Nigerians can prosper, no matter what positive endeavour they decide to engage in.