By Raheem Akingbolu
As part of its measures to give customers the fulfillment they require, First Bank has further equipped its senior level managers for higher responsibility.
At the graduation ceremony, organised for the first set of participants in its Senior Management Development Programme, the bank pointed out that the five months course for middle level managers was designed to equip them for higher responsibilities and leadership roles in the bank.
The bank, which grows in strength as it grows old designed the programme with quality facilitation for the initial 23 staff as a succession strategy and for competitiveness in the sector. The graduands were said to have been carefully selected along strategic business units of the Bank.
The Managing Director of the bank, Adesola Adeduntan, underscored the objective of the programme when he said at the end of the course in Lagos that there is no success without succession. “No matter what we do today, we must quit. Even if we don’t want to quit, the natural biological factors will force us to quit and that is why it is important to prepare successors,†he said.
Adeduntan, who recognised that competition is tough in the industry, also said that the bank is creating the next level of leaders who are adequately prepared for the challenges ahead. He said that it will be dangerous to go the battle field without preparation.
According to him, the bank’s transition will be incomplete without developing the workforce. He therefore challenged the graduands to embark on continuous personal development as any professional that fails to improve will become a dinosaur.
He also encouraged them to mentor those under them explaining that promotion comes  when the management knows that there are capable people who can take over from superiors.
 Also speaking, Ini Ebong, the chairman of the first academic governing council, appreciated the CEO who has kept his promise to develop the people, a course seen as catalyst to the continuous growth of the bank. He charged the staff to unleash their potentials as the bank believes that they have something to offer.
 Appreciating the bank’s management, one of the graduands, Yemi Adesanyan who spoke on behalf of her colleagues, promised that they will live up to their expectations.
