FITC enters agreement to boost professional development in finance

06 Dec 2017
Financial Nigeria

Summary

FITC has also commenced the process of accrediting fifteen of its core courses with Malaysia-based Finance Accreditation Agency.

Managing Director/CEO, FITC, Lucy Surhyel Newman

Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), a non-profit professional services organization owned by the Nigerian Bankers' Committee, has signed an exclusivity agreement with the Malaysia-based Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA). The agreement, which was signed on Monday, 13 November, 2017 is to establish the FAA Certified Training Professional (CTP) Programme in Nigeria.
    
The CTP course is designed for human resources, learning and development, and training professionals who want to enhance their skills, knowledge and results. The course is also suitable for professionals in the financial services sector, who want to transfer their knowledge and experience through training.     
Financial institutions as well as their learning and development staff will find the CTP very useful. Successful participants will be recognised as Certified Training Professionals. They will also receive a certificate upon completion of the course and related follow up actions as part of the requirements for the certificate. The course enhances trainers' capabilities through tools such as the FAA Learning Standards and FAA Quality Framework.

As an independent, quality assurance and accreditation body, supported by Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) and Securities Commission Malaysia, FAA is responsible for raising standards and quality of professional learning and development in the financial services industry. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, FAA is sought out by institutions across the globe, as the first institution to have developed learning standards for the financial services industry and to offer learning programme accreditation.

The Managing Director/CEO of FITC, Lucy Surhyel Newman, said she is inspired by the milestones the organisation has attained, including the exclusivity agreement that FITC signed last month. She said these milestones are integral to the organisation's 2014-2019 strategic plan, which was designed to enhance FITC's capacity to drive its sub-regional growth and relevance aspirations.

According to FITC – an organisation that provides training, consulting and research services to operators, regulators and specialized institutions within the financial services sector in Nigeria and the West African sub-region – it has also commenced the process of accrediting fifteen of its core courses with the FAA of Malaysia. Ten of the courses are currently being assessed for accreditation by FAA, while the remaining five will be accredited at the beginning of 2018.

All applicable certificates for the FAA-accredited courses will bear both the FITC and FAA Logos and updated periodically to comply with global and target industry trends. The 15 FITC courses to be accredited by FAA are: Basic Credit Analysis; Intermediate Credit Analysis; Advanced Credit Analysis; Problem Loans Management; Enterprise Risk Management; Operational Risk Management; Credit Risk Management; Liquidity Risk; Compliance Risk; AML/CFT Compliance; Risk Based AML/CFT; Risk Based Auditing; Forensic Auditing & Investigation; Corporate Treasury Management; and Financial Modelling.


From Left: Company Secretary, FITC, Alaba Ekundayo; Head, Business Development, Finance Accreditation Agency (FAA) of Malaysia,
Arvind Sreekaran; Managing Director/CEO, Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC); Dr Lucy Surhyel Newman; Director,
Strategic Corporate Relations, FAA, Ulrika Brunner; Head, FITC Training Department, Dr Olatunji Ajiboye, during the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing in Lagos.


Based on the Competency Framework introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria in November 2012 to address the competency challenges in the banking industry, banks are required to continuously enhance the capabilities of their human capital, thereby, creating a bench strength of highly talented professionals for the banking industry. FITC has a critical role in adequate implementation of the competency framework.

FITC also said the FAA accreditation will help ensure the continued relevance of its courses, especially to FITC's institutional members and other stakeholders with operations beyond Nigeria. Indeed, the accreditation will provide an independent assurance of the quality of FITC's programmes.

Before its partnership with the FAA, FITC signed a Cooperation Agreement with the International Finance Corporation for the 2011-2014 period, followed by an extension for the period 2015-2018. The FITC-IFC partnership covers Ghana, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, in addition to Nigeria. Among the aims of the Corporation Agreement is to build and develop local institutional capacity to promote good corporate governance practices.

Since its establishment in 1981, FITC has cumulatively recorded over 61,000 participants in its finance and non-finance related trainings of which 6,750 are directors of banks and financial institutions. The Nigerian Bankers' Committee, which owns FITC, is comprised of the CBN, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and all commercial and specialized banks in Nigeria. FITC's continental footprints indicates its services are now patronised by operators and regulators within the financial services sectors and especially, banking industry in Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Lone, Uganda, Tanzania, Cote d' Ivoire, Mozambique, and Ethiopia.


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