FirstBank graduates 4th-set of participants in senior management development programme

First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. has graduated 20 successful participants in the fourth edition of its Senior Management Development Programme (SMDP).

Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney, Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, said in a statement on Wednesday that the event took place in Lagos.

“Before the 2023 graduation, the SMDP had produced 52 graduates.

“The bank successfully graduated 23 participants in its inaugural edition, held in 2018; 17 in 2019 and 12 in 2020,” she said.

Ani-Mumuney said the SMDP, an intensive skill development programme, was structured to enhance core leadership and business competencies of selected senior management staff within the bank.

She said that the programme was one of the three core leadership programmes, aimed at internally identifying and developing high-potential talents positioned for the next generation of the bank’s leaders.

The Spokesperson named the other leadership programmes as the Leadership Acceleration Programme (LAP) and FirstBank Management Associate Programme (FMAP).

Ani-Mumuney said that SMDP was also a FirstBank’s intensive modular programme for a select group of senior managers to principal managers, who are proven leaders in their respective functions and identified as central to the bank’s succession plan.

She said, “The SMDP is an intensive skill development programme structured to enhance core leadership and business competencies of elite senior management staff within the bank.

“It consists of three instructor-led modular periods adopting a blend of classroom lectures, experiential activities, flipped learning strategies and peer-to-peer discussions to develop the desired talent pool.”

The statement also quoted Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank Group as saying, “this programme is one of FirstBank’s key initiatives designed to create a dependable pool of highly skilled, favourably competitive, and globally minded senior managers.

“It is also aimed at accelerating their journey through the very demanding process of becoming outstanding leaders and management executives.

He said that the bank’s programme was further proof of its commitment to grooming and development.

He said, “through the Senior Management Development Programme, we emphasise sound leadership as the ethos and language of bankwide conversations.

“This provides an empirical means of guaranteeing the bank’s leadership bench strength both for now and the future.”

The Senior Management Development Programme (SMDP) is among the three core leadership programmes and strategic approaches designed to sustain performance, build capacity and promote the empowerment of employees from the lower cadres to the upper levels.

The other programmes are Leadership Acceleration Programme and FirstBank Management Associate Programme (FMAP).

These programmes aim at internally identifying and developing high-potential talents who could take up the mantle of being the next generation of the bank’s leaders.