allAfrica.com: Africa: Bank PHB Launches Banker's Club, As Stakeholders Commend Apprentice Africa (Page 1 of 1)

Africa: Bank PHB Launches Banker's Club, As Stakeholders Commend Apprentice Africa

Consistent with its Retail Banking focus and in keeping with its growing reputation as Nigeria's Most Innovative Bank, Bank PHB has concluded plans to launch a unique and innovative concept called the BankPHB "BANKERS CLUB".

The initiative is geared towards the enhancement of the Nigerian Child's appreciation for banking, its values and their inextricable importance in our Society.

The Bankers Club enables the "Nigerian Child", to utilize the solid financial foundation provided by BankPHB in planning for the future at an early stage. It also provides them a platform for sound financial education and management.

According to Bank PHB's Divisional Director, Retail Banking, Mr. Olu Akanmu the bank feels a compelling sense of responsibility to ensure that the Nigerian child is proactively and positively engaged in a way the guarantees a better society in future. This is the same thinking that informs Bank PHB's strategic engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility through the Bank PHB National Scholar's Scheme.

He said the growth and development of the Nigerian Child is vastly affected by the intricate values instilled in them by the various institutions of socialization and as such Bank PHB is committed to instilling in our youth, the basic principles of financial management as well as unique banking values. Mr. Akanmu said Bank PHB would encourage the concept in all classes of primary, secondary and tertiary schools across the country.

Only recently, Bank PHB launched 13 fully equipped libraries in 9 states in the first phase of the implementation of the Bank PHB National Scholars' Scheme. Indigent students of secondary schools across the country are also being grated scholarship in select public schools.

The Managing Director of Bank PHB, Mr. Francis Atuche said Bank PHB's Corporate citizenship goes far beyond paying taxes and abiding by regulatory obligations. He said the bank feels a sense of duty to support societies where it carries out profitable business.

Meanwhile , people have continued to commend Bank PHB Apprentice Africa. Mr. Biodun Shobanjo the advertising mogul who is cast as the CEO said ' for me it represents that platform to educate young Nigerians and Africans on the skills they must possess to be leaders".

Apprentice Africa stands out from the pack of reality shows _ many of which, truth be told, shouldn't have gone beyond the original papers they were written on _ by its conception, packaging and execution. It is a show about the art and science of business and leadership. It is a show that seems as if it were tailor made for Nigeria.

Beyond the brass tacks of business, The Apprentice Africa speaks to the direly needed values of leadership, enterprise, and youth empowerment. It x-rays the corporate world with the intrigues behind the big and the small deals, the squabbles, the make-ups, the big ideas, the jostling and positioning, risk-taking, gutsy leadership and just everything that goes into translating vision into legacy.

Shobanjo said " Again it is a platform that offers opportunity for practical knowledge as against the theoretical. As respective contestants get fired or escape being fired, people can easily relate with the experiences and draw necessary lessons. The greatest asset or capital a business can have is the human capital. It is high time we started paying much attention to our human capital even in our national life. For me, The Apprentice Africa could not have come at a more auspicious time. It is important to also show the rest of the world that our young men and women are equally capable of rigorous intellectual and business tasks."

Here is a continent that is blessed with probably the richest diversity of human resources and natural minerals, but is still to come to grips with the issue of leadership. Indeed, it has become accepted wisdom that Africa's progress or lack thereof, turns on the issue of leadership.

While we vacillate between the European masters and the emerging Asian drivers, while we oscillate between grants and aid, while we spend the little income still available (after corruption has taken its toll) on those conferences and state visits that benefit only the travellers and charter airlines, we need to focus on producing those men and women who will lead us to the promised land!

Hence, Nigeria needs Apprentices of global leadership, Apprentices of global excellence, Apprentices of visionary can-do leadership, we need our Obama. Yes, our own Obama. For come to think of it, it is this same continent that has given the world the visionary and paradigm-shifting personality that has exploded upon our milieu: a personality that win or lose, whichever way the tide turns today will be remembered for the audacity of his faith, his self belief, his essence: the man Barack Obama.

Sired in true African blood _ one that rarely mixes so well with any other race that the next generation skin and hair will always shout: I am black _ Obama has had the benefit of both worlds. The people centred worldview of the Black man, and the individualistic strain of the western world. A palette that results in a quiet but deep pride in his origins, meshed with the transparent results of his Ivy league Harvard education.

Nigeria, and indeed Africa, needs Obamas so desperately that just a few will do for a start, really. We need men and women of knowledge and vision to provide us the enduring fruits of true leadership. Men who will see beyond the now, and help us unlock the enormous potentials that God has endowed us with into daily benefits. Leaders who will bring us the basic things of life: fuel, electricity, water, roads, education: the very basics.

And make us feel part of this world rather than a people who need a special and demeaning category _ under developed, developing and third world (read wretched) of Africa _ by peers who are really no better than we are. And herein are the reasons why the continent needs more of leadership and business reality shows such as Apprentice Africa more than the regular fare of entertainment for entertainment sake.

From the executives at their corporate desks, to the MBA students, to the average business man to the secondary school students, and the inquisitive primary school pupils, The Apprentice has become must watch for the family. As a family we can 'relexadely' watch without wondering when we will be forced to resort to remote control.

In bringing The Apprentice to us, Bank PHB deserves our plaudits. Hopefully, it will show the way for others in not only engaging the public beyond financial intermediation, but in a very long lasting cross-generational manner. Bottom line, the bank has upped the ante and changed the face of reality television in Nigeria by bringing to our screens a unique, credible and intellectually stimulating programme that impacts positively on the society.

So, will another Obama come from The Apprentice Africa. Look no further, the next Obama may be closer home than you think _ on the sofa with you engrossed in finding out who does what to earn the $200, 000 prize.

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