Why capacity building is key in banking -- Polaris Bank CEO, Tokunbo Abiru

The Group Managing Director/CEO of Polaris Bank Limited, Tokunbo Abiru, has stressed the importance of staff training as the bedrock of a strong financial system and institutions.

Mr Abiru made this known at the graduation ceremony of the first set of graduands from Polaris Business School, the Bank’s Training School in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Saturday.

According to the top banker: “You have to train your people properly and let them know the values that you stand for and also the kind of understanding that they must bring to bear when they are coming to the real world and the workplace, in particular.

“The essence of today is about inculcating our values in the new set of graduates that we are bringing on board. They have to buy into the values of the institution and topmost on that is the need for them to place very high premium on ethics and what the bank and the larger financial sector stands for which is very strong corporate governance.”

Addressing the new staff who came through the popular graduate trainee route of the combined streams 43 and 44 of the Polaris Graduate Intensive Training respectively, the Polaris Bank GMD advised them to place very high premium on ethics and corporate governance as a major part of what shapes anybody’s career in an industry like the financial institution.

“You have been trained to be professionals and leaders, who will make the difference in any area of the bank you are deployed to. You are undergoing today’s graduation not because we sought to do you a favour, but because you emerged successful from amongst thousands of Nigerians that sat for the same examination,” he added.

Earlier, Polaris Bank’s Head of Human Capital Management, Taiwo Olupeka, said the 61 graduands were the successful lot among the over 20,000 applicants who sat for the bank’s recruitment test.

Mr Olupeka described them as the “pioneering set” after a very rigorous and thorough exercise, charging them to do their best to make the bank the first and leading commercial bank in the country.

The new employees, who are fresh university graduates with diverse academic backgrounds and impressive academic records, have completed an intensive nine-week basic banking training programme at the Polaris school, based in Ibadan.