Coming with a Basket of Goodies
By Dike Onwuamaeze
Monday, May 12, 2008
Erastus Akingbola, chief executive officer of Intercontinental Bank PLC assumes leadership of the Chartered Institute of Bankers with a promise to raise its profile
Erastus Akingbola, chief executive officer of Intercontinental Bank PLC, has lofty dreams for the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, whose leadership he assumed recently. At his investiture ceremony as the 15th president and chairman of council of CIBN, on May 3, Akingbola said he would devote his two-year tenure to transform CIBN into a world-class institute. He also wants to widen its membership, deepen banking education in Nigeria and work towards getting the public and private sector and other member countries of the Association of African Institute of Bankers, AAIOB, to accept CIBN certificate.
The new CIBN boss charged bankers to dream big dreams and to translate them into reality. "We must build that world class institute which we desire, one that we are proud to associate with, one that impacts positively on our career growth, one that sets the agenda for the banking industry and the economy and one that bankers from across the world will scramble to associate with," he said.
Akingbola said the CIBN should be in a position to address the challenges facing the Nigerian banking industry, the most crucial being the need to rebrand, reorganise and reinvigorate the institute to enhance its ability to deal with the demands arising from the growth in the level of capitalisation of the banking sector. Said he: "If the CIBN is the embodiment of banking in Nigeria which today is wearing an unmistakable toga of globalisation, then the institute must be in consonance with best global practices in outlook as well as in operations."
Attaining this position will require the institute and bankers to be more ethical and to embrace the principle of self-regulation as a way of safeguarding the institute's maxim to "jealously guard, preserve and possibly project the noble profession of banking on the principle of trust and honesty." He pointed out that the time had come for members to realise that it takes character, much more than official regulation or laws, to achieve probity and accountability.
Akingbola said that his administration at the CIBN has devised a four-pronged approach to tackle the challenges of widening the membership of the institute and implement some aspects of the CIBN Act of 2007. His first approach is to engender a sense of belonging by removing all the barriers that discouraged bankers from identifying with the institute. The next approach is to collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to ensure that only those with appropriate CIBN professional qualification will be allowed to head sensitive banking departments. Thirdly, qualified members would be encouraged to apply to become fellows of the institute. His administration would also push for the establishment of CIBN chapters in every bank branch.
Another key aspect of Akingbola's strategic plan is to focus on continuous skill development and education in such a way that members would feel the relevance of CIBN in their career development. This would also entail the review of the CIBN curriculum to strengthen courses like risk management, leadership development, corporate governance and management accounting. The University of Lagos would be encouraged during his tenure to introduce Masters of Science, M.Sc, in Financial Planning and Certificate in Risk Management, among others. Also, CIBN would collaborate with the Lagos Business School to offer courses such as senior management programme and advanced management programme as a way of preparing bankers for executive responsibilities in the financial sector.
Furthermore, Akingbola intends to champion the crusade for enlisting undergraduates in Nigerian universities and polytechnics into the CIBN programme. "We plan to organise career days and fairs for job seekers in different universities by bank CEOs who would be visiting the universities and polytechnics to give career talks and encourage students to write CIBN's examination," he said.
He assured that his administration would work towards opening more CIBN training centres in many parts of the country to give bankers and young students access to banking education. "We do not intend to be CIBN of Lagos alone but of both the southern and northern Nigeria," he promised.
Also recently, the CIBN gave Tunde Lemo, deputy governor, financial sector surveillance, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, an award as fellow of the institute. He bagged the award in recognition of his meritorious services to the banking industry, especially his role as part of the CBN team in the banking sector reform which has produced internationally renowned bank.
Others who received the award were Ernest Ebi, CBN's deputy governor, corporate services; Kola Belgore, chairman, Afribank; Tony Elumelu , group managing director, UBA; Tayo Aderinokun, boss of GTBank; Falalu Bello, managing Director, Unity Bank; Reginal Ihejiahi, managing director, Fidelity Bank and Jim Ovia of Zenith Bank.
How not to Handle e-Passport
The Nigerian Immigration Service begins a campaign to educate Nigerians on the best way to handle their e-passport
By Modupe Ogunbayo
The Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, is enlightening the public on the proper handling of the electronic passport also call e-passport in order to avoid damage. Recently, it invited some staff of some embassies to the Ikoyi branch of its Passport Office to educate them on how to handle the e-passports when processing visa applications. They are advised to use paper clips to attach documents instead of stapling them on the e-passports. According to NIS, the electronic-passport, must not be folded. It must not also be stapled to documents or another passport because doing so would damage the micro-chip containing the holder's personal data and fingerprints or biometric information contained in the back page of the passport.
Chris Gaduya, the assistant comptroller of immigration at the Passport Office, Ikoyi, Lagos, said the NIS started the campaign to prevent a fresh influx of e-passport seekers who desire new passports because the ones issued to them were damaged through poor handling. When the passport becomes damaged, it means its data is unreadable by computers. The NIS said this happens because some Nigerians paste their previous passport to the e-passport which damages the micro-chip embedded on the back page of the passport. At other times, they or their travel agents, staple air travel documents and tickets to it shortly before travelling. They do this so that they would not misplace or forget such documents when they are about to travel but such practice does more harm than good since the staple pins create holes in the passport which damages the coded information in the e-passport. Some foreign embassies also damage the travel document by stapling official documents to it during visa procurement processes.
This scenario always has had unpleasant repercussions for the bearer of the e-passport because at times the person may not be allowed to board the plane.
Gaduya also advised members of the public to take special care of the e-passport when in wet conditions like rain or snow to prevent it from malfunctioning.
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