First Gulf Bank (FGB) customer Nasir Mehmood was awarded AED 50,000 towards his child’s tuition fees in the bank’s first quarterly draw for its ChildFirst programme. 

The major leading UAE financial institution is one of the few banks in the country that offers a saving scheme designed to aid parents in funding their children’s education. The ChildFirst account can be opened for a minimum of AED 3000 and customer’s starts receiving interest once a minimum of AED 5000 is reached and maintained. Interest rates are set at 0.5% and are increased to 1% if at least AED 2000 is deposited monthly and the average balance increases over that of the previous month. Programme enrollers are eligible to enter quarterly raffles for every AED 5,000 deposit they make, where they will receive monetary prizes up to AED 100,000.

Commenting on his win, Mehmood said: “I was drawn to FGB’s ChildFirst scheme by the fact that it was solely dedicated to aiding me in saving for my child’s education expenses, and that it also provides me with a chance to win cash prizes to be used towards the same goal. Education is expensive, and every parent wants their children to be enrolled in the best schools and universities. In order to achieve this, parents need to establish a solid savings plan at an early stage.”

ChildFirst takes into consideration the financial commitments that customers need to meet and therefore does not charge any additional costs for administration fees, full or partial withdrawal from the account or if the deposit amount falls below the minimum indicated range. Primary account holders also receive a free international debit card and online account access.

Commenting on the ChildFirst programme, Huda Mohammed Abdulla, Executive Vice President - Branch Distribution, said: “As one of the leading banks in the UAE, we are always looking for ways to contribute to our nation. The education of our children is critical to the growth and success of our country. ChildFirst is our way of working towards ensuring that all children residing in the UAE have the opportunity to receive a quality education.”

Joyseej Mukherjee, Head of Liabilities at FGB, added: “We created ChildFirst with the vision of developing a programme that helps parents to save for an important cause and also rewards them for it. This is a proven and successful method for encouraging residents to save and in raising awareness about financial literacy and planning. Many of our products follow this model and the large number of enrolled customers shows us that we are offering customer centric financial products that resonate.”

The next quarterly draw for ChildFirst will take place in April 2013.

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