The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has spoken on its on-going audit of bank workers.
The exercise, it said, was embarked upon because of the lack of skills and executive capacity among the workers.
CBN Acting Director, Financial Policy and Regulation, I. T. Nwaoha, said the audit, which started in November, last year, would be completed in November next year.
He spoke at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Graduates Induction Day in Lagos. The CBN and the Bankers’ Committee, he said, had appointed the CIBN to serve as the accreditation agency under the competency framework for the banking industry.
He said banks should start assessing their staff in key roles especially risk managers, auditors, compliance officers, treasurers, chief finance officers and other staff in controlled functions in line with competency framework.
Nwaoha regretted that the skill gap manifested in, among others, the lack of in-depth knowledge of core banking functions and poor understanding of basic banking operations; poor understanding of banking regulations; unethical conduct and unprofessional practices; and knowledge gaps in financial markets and treasury management.
He said reasons advanced for these inadequacies include the lack of a coordinated industry-recognised training accreditation and certification system as well as competency standards for practitioners in the industry.
“The development of staff competencies became imperative in addressing the inadequacies, thus, underscoring the need to review the training of new generation of banking professionals to develop and deliver satisfactory banking products and services to the consumers,” he said.
The framework, he explained, sought to ensure that workers possessed the qualifications, skills and experience relevant to the jobs they are engaged to perform. It prescribes minimum requirements officers engaged in control function should possess. The primary goal of the framework is to provide reasonable assurance that a job holder is fit, and carries on satisfactorily the responsibilities of the office he occupies.
The CBN director explained that in drawing the framework, considerations were given to the various kinds of jobs performed in the industry as well as the bodies of knowledge, skills, and experience needed to perform the jobs.
“The identification of gaps (where they exist) and how they may be closed – possibly through education, training or acquisition of experience, were also covered”
“Based on the multiplicity of sources from which education and training may be acquired with the attendant quality differentials, there was need for accreditation of all the service providers to ensure that they meet minimum requirements and standards on a continuing basis,” he said.
However, the success of the framework implementation, he said, depends on the effectiveness of the accreditation function, prompting the appointment of CIBN to perform the role.
“The framework identifies some roles that are of operational and/or regulatory significance and designates such roles as control functions. The control functions are broadly group into two – significant influence functions and customer functions. There are 35 control functions in the framework. It is hoped that as implementation continues, more roles may be captured,” he said.
He further explained that a central database for approved persons is being created at the CBN. All banks, as reporting institutions, are to update the database with details of approved persons and access it ‘on need bases’ as part of their due diligence prior to engagement and appointment of persons who will perform control functions in the industry.
It also includes a “Code of Practice for Approved Persons”. He said it is expected that individuals who perform control functions are to abide by the requirements of the code, against which their conducts would be gauged.
According to the CBN, training and certification will be conducted by accredited local and foreign education/training service providers. “The accreditation will be carried out by the accreditation agency, which role will be performed by your Institute. To attain and maintain competency in a particular job role, an individual responsible for a control function is expected to accumulate annually, a minimum number of predetermined learning-credit points, through attendance and successful completion of accredited training programmes,” he said.
The CBN, he said, will continue to provide overarching supervision in the implementation of the Competency Framework in the Nigerian banking industry. In this regard, the implementation of the Framework, he said, will form part of the routine examination of banks in the country going forward. What this means is that bank examiners, as part of their examination responsibilities, would be required to evaluate and report on efforts by banks at developing, enhancing and sustaining the competency of their staff members on a continuous basis.
Nwaoha said “the induction, which involved about 808 banking professionals, is a very bold statement by the CIBN on its commitment of saying ‘never again’ will critical positions in the banking industry be manned by less qualified personnel. It is also an affirmation of the commitment of the Institute to continue to partner with the CBN in elevating the practice of banking in Nigeria.”
