To remain profitable, competitive, banks’ must invest in human capital–Ecobank
Greater emphasis on the importance of human capital development within the financial services sector has been stressed.
Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Charles Kie, during the bank’s Graduate and Management Development Programme held at the Ecobank Training School, Ikeja, Lagos, said financial institutions need to invest in human capital to remain profitable and competitive in an ever changing world.
He listed other key factors deciding the success rate of a bank to include capital, technology, talents, innovation and strong culture.
On the trainees, Kie averred that “60 graduates, who went through a rigorous training process, represented the first segment of 400 to be employed and trained by the bank as part of its future growth plans”.
“The programme is designed to groom and develop prospective employees of the bank over a period of 12 months to enable them to deliver world-class banking services to customers.
Kie noted further that “There are six key success factors that you can take away: you need capital in a bank. It means that people who are empowered to use and deploy that capital, have to be well trained; have to be knowledgeable so that they can make the best use of that capital. If not, the bank will go down. Second, you need good technology because without this, there is no way you are going to bank in this 21st century and certainly not in future. But technology is not just about platforms.
“You need extremely good control because everything you do will be affected by this. You need strong control. The next skill, you must be knowledgeable. That is why you will spend time in making sure that you get properly equipped in order to be those talents that we need to succeed.”
In his remarks, the Head, Human Resources at the bank, Yves Mayilamene, said
“This is an investment on the future generation of Ecobank staff who are going to take this bank to be one of the best or among the best banks not only in Nigeria but in Africa. We are using Nigeria as a platform of good dedication, and good quality of people”.
