When Segun got his call-up letter, he had one thing in mind: to enjoy all of the service year. After all, the famous NYSC tales he’d been told by his brothers were about to become a reality. He woke up every morning in camp looking ahead to what each day would bring. One of such days opened his eyes to a means of convenient savings that was to help him kick-start his post-university life on a good footing. On the day, a team of Financial Advisors from Sanlam Life Insurance besieged the camp, educating and sensitizing the Corp members on the importance of insurance. One product they sold to the corpers was the Sanlam Life Insurance EasySave Plan, a one-year savings plan designed with people like him in mind. He wasted no time in signing up with N10, 000 per month. He had plans. By the time Youth Service was over, he had accumulated a total sum of N124, 800, which was to become the seed fund for his current Snail Farming business. Looking to start a business soon?...Read more

The retirement party was as colourful as the celebrant’s career. For the retiring paediatrician, Dr. Sylvanus Ikechukwu, however, his mind was far from the back-slapping and wine-guzzling going on around him. He knew exactly what he wanted in retirement. Surely, he was not going to take up any job again having worked actively for the past 41 of his 69 years, sacrificing family and his youth for the Hippocratic Oath. Now that the children were already fathers and mothers themselves, he was determined to spend the rest of his life seeing the modern world with Anne, his devoted wife of 43 years. But the snag was choosing the right investment he could always fall back on. ”Happy retirement, Uncle.” Chidinma, his niece who worked as an Annuity Sales Manager at Sanlam Life Insurance, interrupted his soliloquy. A couple of you’re-now-a-big-girl, where-is-your-husband pleasantries later, Chidinma had introduced her company’s Guaranteed Lifetime Retirement In...Read more

When the family head informed Paulinus of the demise of Mazi Okafor, he knew it was time to once again fulfil his moral and familial obligations. A village boy who rose to become a top executive at a thriving oil servicing firm in Port Harcourt, Paulinus, son of Okpala the palmwine tapper, owed his entire career to four people. After he lost his dad at the age of eight, some elders wanted him to take up his dad’s business. But a group of four, led by the now-late Mazi Okafor, insisted he continued his schooling. This group ensured his tuition and other sundry fees were paid as at due up till the University. In gratitude, as he made money, he ensured they enjoyed the good things of life as they advanced in years. Last year, he had buried one of them, the one her August Meeting mates nicknamed ‘Classy’. Aunty Classy’s funeral had cost him a sizeable amount. Knowing he still had three others he owed the very best, he sought support. He found it in the Sanlam ...Read more

Chief Komolafe was the President of the Friends’ Assembly Cooperative Union (FACU) for two years. In those years, his astute managerial abilities and humane leadership qualities endeared him to all and sundry. His popularity was such that many times, members mooted the possibility of extending his tenure beyond the constitutional two years. Until one loan facility changed everything. His friend of many years had gone broke in the middle of an important project. Desperate for funds, he ran to Chief Komolafe for help. Chief advised him to join the Cooperative, run the account for a while and then request a loan facility. But his friend did not have the luxury of time. He convinced Chief to use his own account to stand for him. Chief did; got the loan and gave his friend. Midway into the repayment plan, Chief’s friend was involved in a car crash. He lost both legs and became confined to a wheelchair. Chief was devastated that his friend’s unexpected incapacitati...Read more

“I am sorry my brother, things are really tight now. I no get any change at all. Sorry.” That was the text message Jerry got from Frank, his friend of many years, in response to his request for a hundred-thousand-naira loan. Frank’s was the sixth of such kind of messages he had received in the past two hours. But Franks’ opened his eyes to the general paucity of funds in the system; for Frank was never broke. Jerry heaved heavily as he collapsed in his chair. He needed urgent cash to settle his children’s tuition. Since he was relieved of his job exactly a year ago, he had gone from interview to interview to no avail. Last term, he was only able to pay the children’s tuition because of the lump sum pay-out he got from his pension fund administrator. Now after sorting the rent and other domestic needs, he was as broke as a joke. Now that no one seemed to have any spare change, he’d have to find a less prestigious school for his children...Read more

He had no inkling what the day held in store for him. Had he known, perhaps, he would have postponed the trip to a later date. But life sounds no warning bells; it just happens. While saying his goodbyes to his wife and son, he had promised them headed be back in the evening. But he never fulfilled this promise. Eye witnesses recounted how the Lagos-bound Nissan Urvan bus he was travelling in from Akure ran into a slow moving fuel tanker just before Ibadan. The bus caught fire on collision. Other road users watched helplessly as the inferno consumed all 14 passengers on board. A couple of days after the accident, his bereaved and out-of-sorts widow got a call from a certain Angela, a Financial Advisor with Sanlam Life Insurance. After commiserating with her on the death of her husband, Angela informed her she was the beneficiary to an Sanlam Life Insurance Family Income Protection Plan her husband had been running and that she was calling to put her through the claims process. Th...Read more

As a parent or guardian, it is incumbent upon you to plan your wards’ summer so they are adequately engaged all through the holidays. After all, children should never stop learning. Here, we have compiled a list of 8 ways to make the summer fun and educative for your child/ward: 1. Cooking and Baking. If your children are old enough to handle kitchen related activities, it’s time to teach them how to cook and bake. Pick a day you’d be home and take them through the basics of cooking their favourite meal. Involve them in the entire process and stand back, watch them replicate what you have done. By the end of the holidays, their culinary competence would have become better. 2. Create a treasure hunt. Design a simple treasure map and hand it to them. Hide some things of interest around the house and give them a time frame to search for those ‘treasures’. The more they are able to find within the time frame, the more interesting the hunt will be. This g...Read more