By Moses Uwagbale
The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Lamido Yuguda, has urged senior bankers to mentor the younger generation so as to ensure sustainability, safety and soundness of the banking and finance industry.
Lamido gave the advice at the relaunch of the CIBN Mentoring Scheme, with theme, “Mentoring: Unlocking Career Potentials and Possibilities”, on Thursday in Lagos.
He said that their commitment to mentoring the younger generation would go a long way in actualising the objectives of the institute’s mentoring scheme.
The aim of the scheme is to mould, shape and transform the minds of young and upcoming professionals in the banking and finance industry.
It was first launched in 2012 as a capacity building initiative to address some of the needs and gaps identified in the industry.
The re-launch was necessitated by the fact that the scheme had been fortified and enriched with more features for the benefit of all participants and would be participants.
Running on a mobile responsive user friendly application, it went live on June 17, 2020, with over 600 mentors and mentees nominated by managing directors of banks in Nigeria.
Lamido said: “Let me use this opportunity to encourage senior bankers to collaborate with CIBN in actualising the objectives of the mentoring scheme.
“Your commitment to mentoring the younger generation will go a long way in ensuring the sustainability safety and soundness of the banking industry.
“To the young bankers, I enjoin you to make the best use of this rare opportunity! I am confident that with the cooperation of all stakeholders, the CIBN mentoring scheme will be a point of reference for others,” he said.
Lamido said that to be a successful professional, one must be ambitious, willing to go the extra mile, try to be a value enhancer and must be outstanding.
He said that such a person must be teachable and willing to learn from other persons who are deemed successful in the same career path.
According to him, it is critical for young bankers to be mentored by seasoned senior colleagues as they progress in their careers because the banking profession is predicated on trust and professionalism. .
He said that these values could be taught but are actually reinforced when demonstrated by senior bankers and emulated by their younger colleagues.
” Due to the peculiarities of the banking industry, it is easy for young bankers to get distracted with the prestige and sometimes material benefits that come with the profession.
” However, mentorship relationships help to keep such young professionals grounded and focused on building character, advancing their knowledge, growing their professional network and cultivating the right values.
” This is important because what makes success sustainable for a professional is a combination of skill, experience and the right values,” the SEC director general said.
A former Company Secretary, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr Tijani Borodo, urged professionals in the banking and finance industry to imbibe good attributes in their profession and in their personal lives.
“There are three Cs which I call the attributes of a good leader, that is, character, capacity and competency.
“For you to be a banker, you must have character; and if you are a trustworthy person, and you are honest, the chances are you have character; and if you have that, the banking industry and the regulators are there to ensure there is professionalism, capacity and competency in you and all others in the banking industry,” he said.
Mrs Nneka Okekearu, the Deputy Director, Enterprise Development Centre, Pan Atlantic University, said that a perfect mentoring plan must be built on trust, impact, partnership, skills enhancement, collaboration and tracking.
” For there to be a perfect mentoring, there must be trust in the process, they must trust that we are not using it for appraisal and that the conversation stays between the two parties.
“There must also be impact! that is, something that we are working toward, and if you do not see that taking part, then you begin to question whether anything took place.
“There must be partnership between the mentor and mentees so that the desired objectives would be achieved.
“Skills must be enhanced in the process and must be done with collaboration and lastly, we should be able to go back and check the trust to ensure that with the mentoring process, the mentoring actually did take place.
“After the six months mentoring or whatever time schedule, you go back and check that track and see if indeed there has been any improvement whatsoever to that particular mentee.
“With the tracking, we will be able to check and ensure that we are on course and our objectives had been achieved,” she said.
Earlier, the CIBN President, Mr Bayo Olugbemi, said that the Institute had identified mentoring as a potent tool for bridging the gap between learning and doing.
“Esteemed audience, the changing times requires that we do things differently; the changing times require that we do things differently.
“At the CIBN, we believe so much that to maintain safety, soundness and stability of the banking industry, the human capital has a pivotal role to play in this wise.
“We have identified mentoring as a potent tool for bridging the gap between learning and doing.
“In order to uphold ethics and professionalism which is the hallmark of our banking industry and our great institute, accomplished and experienced bankers need to mentor the young and upcoming ones in order to sustain the ideals of our I ndsutry,” he said.
