The Group Managing Director/CEO of Polaris Bank LTD., Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, has stressed the importance of staff training as the bedrock of a strong banking sector and for institutions.
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, at the weekend.
A statement from the bank quoted its CEO to have said: “We in the banking industry have to train our people properly and let them know the values that the sector stands 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.”
Additionally, Abiru noted that: “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 (PGIT) respectively, the Polaris Bank boss, 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, Mr. Taiwo Olupeka, said the 61 of of the graduating staff were the successful among the over 20,000 applicants who sat for the bank’s recruitment test.
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 completed an intensive 9-week basic banking training program at the school based in Ibadan.
Sandra Onachukwu and Chinonso Nwakaudu emerged best graduating students of the two streams and they won the CEO prize respectively.
