- Investment in Human Capital Vital to Banks’ Success – Kie
The Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Charles Kie, says financial institutions need to invest in human capital to remain profitable and competitive.
According to him, other factors that contribute to the success of a bank are capital, technology, talents, innovation and strong culture.
Kie spoke during the bank’s Graduate and Management Development Programme held at the Ecobank Training School, Ikeja, Lagos.
The managing director said 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.
According to Kie, 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.
Speaking on their roles in the bank, the Ecobank MD said, “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.”
The Head, Human Resources, Ecobank Nigeria, Yves Mayilamene, said the bank was investing in the people to accomplish the transformation agenda of the organisation.
“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,” he said.
