The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has certified and granted full accreditation status to the capacity building and the training centre of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited’s Training Academy.
The accreditation, according to a statement by the bank, is due to its compliance with best practices and other requirements set by the Institute.
The certification came at the end of a recent evaluation exercise carried out by the CIBN which is the the sole accreditation agency under the Competency Framework for the country’s Banking and Finance industry put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The FCMB Training Academy is a full-fledged learning and development centre responsible for the continuous building of skills and the expansion of knowledge base of new and existing staff of the Bank.
It is to effectively equip them as professional bankers. Over the years, the Academy has upgraded the quality of its offerings to further add value to the Bank and its staff. These include the introduction of an industry leading e-learning platform, hiring of internal and external facilitators of high repute and provision of modern facilities.
During the evaluation exercise, the CIBN team carried out various reviews and processes regarding the services provided by the Academy. These covered operating procedure, programmes and curriculum, quality of internal and external pool of faculty, programme delivery and evaluation process and facilities in place, among others.
With the accreditation, employees of FCMB will be granted automatic exemptions in certain subjects and levels of professional certification, such as Diploma Level, Intermediate Professional Level and Chartered Banker Level in the Institute’s Banking Professional Examinations leading to the Award of Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
Speaking at the certificate presentation ceremony in Lagos on May 12, 2016, the President/Chairman of Council of the CIBN, Otunba (Mrs.) Debola Osibogun said, “I am indeed elated that First City Monument Bank (FCMB)’s Learning Academy has also joined the league of institutions certified to provide training services in the industry. I thank the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FCMB, Ladi Balogun for deeming it fit to tap into the scheme for the benefit of staff”.
Balogun on his part said that the feat is another landmark achievement. “It is a clear demonstration that the various strategic approaches we have adopted to boost our workforce’s learning and development through our Training Academy are yielding the desired results and our stakeholders appreciate them.”
Balogun, who was represented by the Bank’s Divisional Head, Human Resources and Change Management, Felicia Obozuwa, added that, “capacity building and innovation are key priorities of the Bank. We will continue to upscale our focus on these critical areas across all cadres of employees to further reinforce our core values of professionalism, sustainability, customer focus and excellence.”
Also speaking, the Head, Training Academy of FCMB, Nana Odejayi stated that, “this development is a stamp of quality on our services at the Academy. Our Bank has distinguished itself as a viable learning organisation and we are committed to a culture of continuous learning and professionalism.
“Our programmes and processes as certified, are in line with the industry and global standards. This achievement has arguably positioned us as one of Nigeria’s leading learning organizations and it will further inspire us to provide the required competencies to our employees to deliver exceptional results at all levels’’.
The FCMB Training Academy has continued to receive awards and accolades on account of its robust learning system and structures as well as compliance with mandatory regulatory trainings.
For instance, its training programmes on Customer Service to staff of FCMB contributed to the conferment of the “The Most Customer Friendly Bank – 2015”, award on the Bank at the BusinessDay’s Award held last year in Lagos. In 2014 and 2015, the Bank won the SkillSoft & LRMG Best e-Learning Organisation Award held in South Africa and Nigeria, respectively.
And in 2013, FCMB, through the strides recorded by the Training Academy in the area of capacity building won the NetDimensions Excellence Award, which was presented in the United Kingdom.
The academy also anchors the Bank’s Management Development Programme (MDP), an extensive and highly competitive programme that focuses on preparing employees for managerial responsibilities within the organisation.
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