We Want To Educate People On Banking

 Adedamola Fashakin Clement, Project Manager of Green White Green Production, is a young vibrant graduate who has a flair for innovation and creativity. He is a graduate of Lagos State University where he obtained a B.Sc Degree in Economics. He also has HND in Business Administration from Osun State Polytechnic. In 2006, he joined GTBank Plc where he has worked till date.

Can you please tell us what Green, White, Green Production is all about?

Green White Green Production (GWG) is a registered business in Nigeria. GWG is a vibrant entertainment company which focuses on TV drama, branding and development. Our passion is to provide quality communication services with the intention to become the best in the industry whilst adding value to our target audience. We want to be the first medium of contact for sensitisation, innovation and development to the general public in the banking system. GWG is a new channel to banking operation, policies, standard and procedure to the general public through visual means. We are committed to bridging the communication gap between the general public and the best industry in our country. We are able to teach our cast and directors the basic knowledge of banking standard and operations. As our economy stands to catch up with those of other developed countries, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, seeks to introduce cashless system to stabilize our economy. In line with this, Green White Green Production merges entertainment and banking to attract our target audience. The concept behind the series is similar to Clinic Matters, Tinsel and About to Wed. The company is registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission and it’s supported by the Lagos State government. We are also planning sending our cast to South Africa and Kenya for proper training.

What is the goal of this project?

Our goal is to bridge the communication gap between the general public and the banking industry through the use of a soap opera. Our TV drama will focus on Nigeria banking industry and our other means of communication will be journals, seminars, symposia, conferences and advertising. We discovered that as the industry is fast growing, the general public is being behind, and as part of efforts to identify the most suitable medium of communicating information on banking operations and services, GWG through a poll conducted concluded that people understand faster and better when they are communicated with through visual means.There are several issues to be addressed by adopting a cashless economy such as operational efficiency, corruption, encouraging people to open more bank accounts, embracing other means of payment outside cash, reducing the cost of currency management and waste. The fact remains that people are inclined to argue from the angle that favours them. There is too much cash in circulation and we don’t have to wait until everything is right before we embark on corrective measures. Experience has shown that economic behaviour will change once the right policy in place.

Why the introduction of soap opera and not the use of advert as other organisations do?

Nigeria is one of the few countries where people move huge amount of cash around. CBN should be commended for seeking to limit the amount of cash in circulation. The CBN recently announced a new policy on cash withdrawal limit which may have a profound effect on banking operations. The main reason we ignored advert is that from our survey, we discovered that a lot of advert is been done without much effect but we discovered that people pay more attention to soap opera than advert. Moreover, they learn from soaps and with the aid of communication in different languages we hope to make it easy to pass the message effectively. We also intend to educate our audience on ATM Merchant; we will also want the CBN to leverage on our platform in passing their message in educating our publics in treasure bill bond. With our soap we would like to educate the general public on what banking is like, and also to educate customer service and branch managers because most workers forget their primary objective in the banking sector. Our soap opera will show case banking operation in Nigeria.

How effective do you think the soap apera will be?

The revolution in Nigeria banking industry within the decade has made the industry one of the best in the country and also attractive to investors. With honesty, the regulatory body i.e. CBN and other financial institutions should be commended for exploring several ways to carry out campaigns on new banking policies, procedures, practices, ethics and innovation as a means of communicating with the general public. Our TV drama is to educate our target audience on the value, ethics and benefits of Nigeria banking sector. The production house will mimic a bank character called “banana bank” as a trade mark for the TV drama analysis, fictions, suspense, comedy, tragedy, issues and resolution in the banking industry. The drama will be televised on Nigerian stations in a prime time hour of the day. There is no doubt that Nigerians are great followers of soap opera that entertain and enlighten them, helping them to overcome stress and other pressures. “Banana banking” has been packaged to create entertainment, excitement, fun and great platform to educate and promote interest in the banking sector while also advancing the objectives of key stakeholders.

What is the essence of your soap opera?

The essence is to move our country towards electronic payment than any other form of payment for convenient, fast and easy business transactions. Our passion is not just to spread the news for cashless economy but to support CBN and other financial institutions in the campaign for economic development through visual means. We want to be the first contact to reckon with in Nigeria in sensitising the public and other financial institutions. We hereby invite CBN Governor and other officials of the apex bank, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, members of bankers committee, independent payment terminal service providers, MasterCard inc, value card, managing directors of banks and other financial institutions, stakeholders and general public to the Civic Centre at Victoria Island to premiere our pilot phase of Banana Bank TV Drama.

What should the public expect from the soap opera?

We discovered that the population of the unbanked is much high than that of the banking public; what I mean is that a lot of people in our society don’t have an account in the bank, although there are things that discourage people. That is why GWG wants to come in .

When is this drama starting?

Hopefully before the end of this year.

What do you expect from your cast?

Experience is our major focus because it really counts. It will be difficult without experience, for editors and directors to do their jobs well. Another criterion is the passion to do the job effectively. We will be using some known faces like Adekunle Adedayo and Lanre Akabueze.