•Professor Chukwuma Soludo Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo has decried the practice among banks’ management where promotion to key positions in various organizations are tied to the volume of deposits mobilized by staff.

Soludo who spoke at the investiture of newly elected fellows of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Lagos last weekend lamented that the practice has acted as source of discouragement to most hard working staff who could have contributed to the growth of their organization.

He said that the CBN would no longer welcome the practice of promoting staff to higher responsibilities simply because they pulled huge accounts to the organization, to the detriment of hard work and experience. According to him, there was an urgent need for banks to invest more money in the training of their staff.

The governor, who acknowledged that the apex bank had been faced with a big dilemma in its attempt to resolve issues bothering on promotion and position in banks, stated there was need for the CIBN, and management of the various institutions to collaborate and find a more acceptable mechanism to determining the basis of promotion in the industry.

The governor rhetorically questioned whether the CBN would need to prescribe minimum requirement for positions of Executive Directors or General Managers or does it need to prescribe the number of years that officers need to spend on one rank before being promoted to another in an effort ensure orderliness in the way things are done in the industry.

He however stated that the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, has a big role to play in resolving such dilemma, using its certification processes. We need to create new skills required for the emerging banking dispensation and the CIBN can help in this regard, by taking its certification process more seriously.

The governor said the institute would also need to develop appropriate skill for achieving this objective
Earlier in her presentation, President and Chairman of Council at the CIBN, Mrs Juliet Madubeze, said she was satisfied that the Nigerian banking industry was now stronger and more dynamic than it was prior to her tenure. She added that the achievement of the sector was made possible by the support and contribution of Fellows and Associates of the institute, stressing there was need for all stakeholders to continue to build on the foundations already laid.

She said that it was interesting that for the first time in the history of the institute, it now has an Act that has professionalized banking in the country. She observed that the Act had besides specifying the roles and responsibilities of the institute as a professional body, has expanded the scope of membership, identified those who cannot legally practice and those who were qualified to head the technical department in banks.
About 50 new members were admitted into the Fellows cadre of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria at the event.