EFS Facilities Services (EFS), a regional leader in delivering integrated facilities management services across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Turkey, has joined hands with National Bonds Corporation, a leading investment company offering innovative shari'a compliant savings and investments solutions, for an innovative Employee Savings Program that will cover more than 3,500 site operations personnel at various projects across the UAE.

Under the scheme, EFS will gift a National Bonds Savings certificate to its blue-collar employees, which will also be accompanied by a brief introduction about the importance of financial planning, discipline, savings, to create a long-term safety net for the financial security for their families.

The program marks the commencement of a financial planning campaign, led personally by its EFS group chief executive Tariq Chauhan, to promote financial education and wellness practices oriented to help employees achieve financial security, inspired by the slogan ‘Save, Relax and Enjoy’.

On the new initiative, Chauhan said: "Aimed at imparting important knowledge about the wisdom of saving and investing money to secure our future, the scheme is highly relevant and critical in today’s times. The gift of a NBC certificate will endorse UAE as a primary destination to invest their savings to achieve sustained growth and returns on investment."

"We hope that a widespread adoption of this initiative will result in a substantial boost to the local economy and redirect a portion of the outflow of home remittances into local savings platforms, as a viable and sustainable investment channel," he remarked.

According to Chouhan, stress related to financial security has unfortunately become rampant, especially under the prevailing socio-economic uncertainty around the world.

"We hope that the savings programme will put their financial worries at ease, gift them with much needed peace of mind, and empower them to focus on self-improvement and improve their productivity," he stated.

National Bonds CEO Mohammed Qasim Al Ali, said: "The gift of knowledge about financial discipline and regular saving will make a tangible difference to the quality of life of this EFS workforce, and help them secure their financial future."

"Coincidentally enough, our National Bonds Savings Index had revealed that 22 per cent of the respondents in the low-income category in the UAE managed to save at least 10-20 per cent of their monthly income, which is relatively higher than the rest of the community groups in the UAE," he stated.

“We actively support the advancement of the vibrant and thriving global expat community within the UAE in line with our core business philosophy. We acknowledge the vital contribution of the blue-collar workers to the development of the UAE, especially that they are deprived from access to financial planning and savings schemes," stated Al Ali.

"We hope that our partnership with EFS will encourage and lead to the launch of several similar community-focused initiatives across the nation. We call upon the expat community to continue to support the expansion of the UAE’s economy whilst building and protecting their savings through National Bonds’ unique rewarding scheme that is ethical, flexible, accessible and affordable to all segments of the UAE multinational society," he added.-TradeArabia News Service