Bullion Bullion

Volume 3 Number 4 Article 4

12-1978

Development of manpower Development of manpower

A. O.G Otiti Central Bank of Nigeria

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Otiti, A.O.G. (1978). Development of manpower. CBN Bullion, 3(4), 14-16.

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DEVELOPMENTOF MANPOWER

lnvestnents are exPendi-tures made for the purPose ofproviding f uture benef itsbeyond the current accountingperiod. lnstitutions also makeinvestment in human assets.Costs are incurred in recruit-ing, hiring, training and deve-loping people as individual em-ployees and as members ofviable interacting organizatio-nal groups.

It is therefore axiomatic tosay that the recognition of theimportance of human resour-ces in economics develoPmentis as old as the science of eco-mics itself. Adam Smith forexample, maintained that theacquisition of talents and skillsby an individual through edu-cation, study or apPreticeshiois a fortune not onlY to him-self but also to the societY towhich he belongs. Alfred Mar-shall, likewise, argued that themost v6luable of all caPital is

that invested in human beings.

Having said much generallYon the importance of manPo-wer or human resources in thescherne of economic develoP-ment, it behoves me to con-centrate on the theme of thispaper rahich is Banking in the80s and my . own concerntoday is relevant to ManpowerDevelopnent. You will agreewith ne that the scope bndthe explosive grorrth in thebusiness of banking and otherfinancial services in Nigeria

within the last five years havebeen so enormous that allresources both human andmaterial have been stretchedto the lirnit to cope with thisexpandeo demand for theirservices. The rate of economicdevelopment in the country'over this period too have beenso great that it calls for despe-rate and urgent attention ifmost of the institutions indi-

Alhaji A.O.G. Otiti,Executive Director"Operations"Central Bank of Nigeria

genised and also those to beindigenised (including banks)have to be properlY managed.

This need was recognised bY

the Financial System ReviewCommittee and thus recom-mended to the FederalGovernment in its report that:a. "the Central Bank should

initiate and f inancescale training for theing industry;

largebank-

b. the training (now availablein the Universities) shouldalso be extended to thePolytechnics; and

c. the staff of commercialbanks need to be retrainedfrom short-term operationsto longterm oPerations".

The Government accePtedthese recommendations andnoted the efforts which werebeing made by the CentralBank in preparing a plan forassisting the banking systemwith regard to manpowerdevelopment. The Govern-ment further hinted on the

possibility of establishingF inance lnstitutes for thetraining of personnel to supPlYthe requirements of the finan-cial system for high-level man-power.

ln order to know the magni-tude of the problem of man-power shortage in the bankingindustry, it is better to exami-ne recent manpower survey ofthe licensed banks, a total ofsome 17,000 persons areknown to be working in the24 licensed banks whichamongst them have a total of494 branch offices in Nigeria.A rough breakdown of the17,000 staff shows the follow-ing:-

Executive Management . . . .66Middle [Vlanagement . . . . .856Junior Management. . . . 1,515Supervisory & Clerical Grades

.13,290Auxilliary Services r

Drivers, Messengers,Cleaners etc. 2,287

To cope with the existingdemands on the 494 offices ofthese banks, there is an im-mediate shortage of some1,500 staff in the supervisoryand junior management levels,

Following another survey ofthe expansion programme ofthe banks, it is estimated thatby 1981, the existing 494branches should have risen toabout 900 bearing in mind thecurrent emphasis on rapid eco-nomic transformation of therural sector which calls for aspecial effort to develop bank-ing services for the rural areas.A minimum of 50o/o groMhin staff for the junior manage-ment, supervisory and clericalgrades has accordingly beenprojected. We are i4 effecttalking of some additionalstaff in these categories num-bering about 8,000. You will

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appreciate the enormity of thechallenge posd by these needsif you realize that it has takenus over 80 years of banking inNiEeria to build up the currentmanpou,er of some 15,000 inthese categories. Banks inNigeria will need to providefor a minimum of 8,000 newstaff within a space of 5 years.This is both a challenge andalso an opportunity to all ofus in the Banking profession.

It is therefore necessarythat all institutions responsiblefor the realisation of recruiting,training and development ofof these enormous manpo\^rermust be geared touards thechallenge and the present andfuture staff mu st seize thisunique opportunity in gsingthe facilities provided toadvantage.

I will treat under four sepa-rate.headings the efforts cur-rently being made and whichshould also be made by theCentral Bank, commercial/merchant banks, the universi-ties and colleges of technologycorrespondence colleges andthe Nigerian tnstitute of Ban-kers toward achieving thetarget of recruiting and train-ing of the needeC staff.

THE ROLE OF CENTRALBANK OF NIGERIA:

The Committee on theNigerian Financial System re-ferred to the acute shortage oftrained manpower for thebanking industry and thoughtthat the present practice oftackling it in fractions cannotyield fruit early enough. Theyrecommended that the CentralBank should take the leader-ship to initiate, develop andfinance a scheme for massivetraining of staff for the indus-try as a whole. The Govern-ment accepted this recommen-dation and went f urther as

mentioned above - the consi-deration of establishing Finan-ce lnstitute for training ofpersonnel to supply therequirements of the financialsystem for high-level manpo-wer. ln this respect, theCentral Bank has been havingdiscussions with the banks,Nigerian lnstitute of Bankers,universities and colleges of

technology with a view to con-solidating efforts of all concer-ned. lt will be appropriate todiscuss what each institutionhas been able to offer o far.

The Central Bank has atraining school designed tocater for its staff which num-ber abqut 4,000 now; and isprepared to accept a littlenumber of staff of any finan-cial institutiqn in its trainingschool. The Bank has a bolderprogramme in hand and willsoon establish a bigger train-ing school which will cater forhioh-level. middle and servicest;ff and may be in a Positionto help other banks as well.

COMMERCIAL/MERCHANTBANKS:

According to recent investi-gation conducted, four bankshave fairly well establishedtraining schools which arefunctioning efficiently and runcourses on regular basis for allcategories of their staff up tobranch-manager-level. Besidesthe training of the staff forspecific functions, some -qfthese training schools offercour$es leading to the Diplomaof the Nigerian Institution ofBankers. Two of these bankshelp sone of the smaller banksin allowing them to send someof their staff to their trainingschools. Six banks, mainlyindigeneous, organise coursessporadically at their respectiveschools, which are basicallyrudimentary in content andmerely serve to introducetheir staff in the clerical andsupervisory as well as juniormanagement cadres superfi-cially to different aspects ofbanking business.

All these efforts thoughremarkable has not gone toofar to cope with the explosivegrowth in the business ofbanking. \

UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGESOF TECHNOLOGY, ETC.:

At the moment the facilitiesavailable in various Universi-ties and Polytechnics are notenough to cater for the despa-rate needs of the bankingindustry. A Chair of bankinghas been established at theUniversity of Lagos through

the financial assistance of theUnited Bank for Africa Limi-ted. Three batches of bankinggraduates have passed out suc-cesfully from the Universitysince the inception of theChair under the able leader-ship of Professor G.d. Nwan-kwo. Also at the lnstitute ofAdministration, Ahmadu BelloUniversity Zaria, the Bank ofthe North has made arrange-ments. with the University tosponsor some of its staff forthe banking diploma corse atthe lnstitute. Both lnstituteof Management and Techno-logy Enugu and Port HarcourtCollege of Technology havestarted to prepare studentsfor banking diploma. As men-tioned below the Nigerianlnstitute of Bankers in makingarrangements with the Univer-sities and Polytechnics with aview that all of them adoptthe syllabus of the lnstitute intheir various institutions. BothEnugu and Port Harcourt!nstitutes have virtually res-ponded to our request. YabaCollege of Technology willsoon start full-time courses inNigerian !nstitute of Bankers'syllabus. At the moment, boththe Principal and his deputyare playing leading role in theexaminations of the lnstitute,

I am quite sure that KwaraState College and College ofTechnology Calabar will soonstart courses leading to ourDiploma. Contacts have beenmade to other Heads of Busi-ness Administration in othercolleges of technology in theStates where these trave notbeen established to offer cour-ses for Nigerian lnstitute ofBankers' examinations. Theyhave always got our syllabusand regulations and in courseof time, all the technical colle-ges and polytechnics shouldhave established Nigerian lnsti-tute of Bankers Diplomacourse in their institutions.

It is noteworthy to mentionat this juncture the contribu-tions so tar made by theUniversity of Lagos, YabaCollege of Technology, Colle-ge of Science and TechnologyCalabar, lnstitute of Adminis-tration, Ahmadu BelloUniversity, Zaria; for they

BANKlNG IN THE EIGHTIES15

have all co-operated from thedrawing of Regulations andSyllabus of the lnstitute'sstage up to the crucial stagewe are now - the conduct ofthe actual examinations.

THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTEOF BANKERS:

The main obiect and purpo-se arnong many others as sPeltout in the memorandum ofAssociation for which the lns-titute is constituted are tohelp promote banking educa-tion in the country with a

view to helping staff employedin the banking techniques andprepare them for higher res'ponsibilities in their variousinstitutions. lf this is the case,all the efforts and energY. ofthe lnstitute should be centredtowards this d irection, andevery ways and means shouldbe sought to ensure that thisvital object js fulfilled.. Thelnstitute has an educationa I Programme covering the conductof evening classes for Part I

examinations and this hasbeen going on for some timenow. Revision courses are alsogiven before the examinationsfor both Part I Nigerian lnsti-tute of Bankers examinationsand Part ll ofthe London lns-titute. ln 1980 when Nigerianlnstitute's Part ll examina-tions start in Nigeria, facili-ties for lecture in the relevantsubjects will be available. Asmentioned above, all the Uni-versities and Colleges of Tech-nology in the country have thesyllabus of the lnstitute andthe Director of Studies of thelnstitute has been mandatedto ensure that all these institu-tions conduct courses leadingto Nigerian lnstitute of Ban-kers' Diploma. Efforts in thisdirection have yielded fruits inthat sonE of these institutionshave stafted courses already.This is the thirteenth AnnualBanking Seminar of the lnsti-tute since 1962 when the thenlnstitute of Bankers (London)Lagos Local Centre took overthe conduct of the BankingSeminar from Ford Founda-tion in 1964. The BankingSeminar has become one ofthe major contributions of thelnstitute to the training ofstaff employed in the bank-ing industry and the standard

since its inception has beenvery high. Advanced FinancialManagement course for sixweeks was conducted forsenior management staff ofthe banks in 1975. This Ad-vanced course should be agene-ral feature of the lnstitute'sprogramme. Monthly lectureson topical banking and finan-cial sublects are always arran-ged. lt is very important thatall staff in the banks shouldtake keen interest in attendingthe lectures; for there are a lotto gain in discussions whichyou may not come about inany reading materials. I there'fore urge all of you to take itas part of your duty and train-ing to participate in all lectu-res arranged by the lnstitute.

CORRESPONDENCE COL-LEGES:

The Nigerian lnstitute ofBankers has made contactswith the Correspondencecolleges abroad and in thecountry viz Wosley Hall, Lon-don School of Banking, ExamSuccess Correspondence Col le-ge and others with a view tosupplementing the facilitiesavailable with them to thevarious efforts already men-tioned. These institutions havecollected the syllabus andRegulations of the lnstituteand students will soon benefitfrom whatever lectures theymake available.

ESTABLISHMENT OF ACENTRAL BANK!NGTRAINIT'JG SCHOOL

There is a specific recom-mendation by the FinancialSystem Review Committee onthe urgent need for the esta-blishrnent of Finance lnstituteThere have been two schoolsof thought as regards wtt ichinstitution should spear-headthe establishment of a Financeor Banking lnstitute. The pro-posed school will be responsi-ble for training of banks'stafffor Nigerian lnstitute of Ban-kers Diploma and other pro-fessional examinations andalso co-ordinate the trainingprogrammes for bank execu-tives. Such school, to enjoythe confidence of all banks,should be established by theCentral Bank. While other pro-

posal is that a Central TrainingSchool would be preferred andsuch a school should be admi-nistered by the Secretariat ofthe N igerian lnstitute ofBankers rather than under theauspices of the Central Bank.Those who propose this,thought that the Central Bankhas its oum staff training re-quirements and it is difficultto contemplate how the twospecialised and separate train-ing functions could be pro-perly achieved. For example,the lnstitute of Bankers inLondon and the Americanlnstitute of Banking organisetheir own training programmesindependent of their respec-tive Central Banks, lt is theirview that the appointment ofa Director of Studies withinthe N igerian lnstitute wasintended to enable the lnsti-tute to establish a departmentresponsible for the coordina-tion of general banking train-ing. This department shouldbe expanded as necessaryrather than placing totalreliance upon the CentralBank.

The establishment of a Cen-tral Training School will nothowever obviate the necessityof maintaining existing train-ing schools as they are intendedto meet the specif ic opera-tional training needs of therespective banks and are notdesigned t(, provide generalbanking instructions, whichthe Central Training School orlnstitute will do.

HONESTY AND INDUSTRY:It is proper at this stage to

discuss among ourselves whatmakes a good be nkerr Themotto of the lnstitute of Ban-kers, Probus et FiCelis, stressesthe personal qualities essentialin banking "Character andlntegrity". Tne lnstitute heldthis motto sacred through thecentury when the parent bodywas inaugurated in the UnitedKingdom. lt is the back-boneof any banking institution andwhen any of this aspect is.absent the whole structure islikely to crumble. I imploreyou to always live up to theexpectation of this motto. ltis just proper to work hardand be upright and honest.

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