By Dipo Olowookere
In recognition of its compliance with regulatory standards and best practices, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has finally accredited the Ecobank Nigeria Academy located in Lagos.
A team of the institute led by its Registrar, Mr Oluseye David Awojobi, visited the academy to inspect the facilities and level of compliance to standards. At the end of the visit, he commended the bank for meeting the provisions and requirements of the competency framework for the Nigerian banking industry as mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through CIBN.
Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Patrick Akinwuntan, who could not hide his excitement over the accreditation, described it as a welcome development, stressing that the bank took deliberate steps to equip the academy to meet with international best standards.
According to him, this further underscores the importance the company places on staff’s training, skills development and capacity building.
He assured that the management will continue to upgrade the standard of the academy to meet with fresh and modern-day industry challenges.
It was learned that the accreditation came at the wake of Ecobank Nigeria’s launch of the Entry Level Development Programme, which is an intensive 8-week medley of learning interventions for fresh graduates.
It is intended to improve the financial literacy of participants who may be coming from other disciplines, or who may have non-financial and banking related academic backgrounds.
The programme is an addition to the existing Ecobank Graduate and Management Trainee program which runs for 12 months and 21 months respectively.
With this development, participants and graduates of the Academy would now be granted exemptions at the various levels of banking professional examinations.
