CIBN President Opara Receives Warm Farewell, Emphasises Building for Future Banking

Nume Ekeghe

The 22nd President and Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Ken Opara had concluded his tenure on a high note, receiving glowing tributes from fellow leaders in the financial sector.

The CIBN, the umbrella professional body for Nigerian bankers, celebrated Opara’s legacy of significant development during his time in office.
In a farewell speech, Opara emphasised the importance of building a sustainable future for the banking industry. He urged leaders to focus on strategies that empower the next generation of bankers with essential skills and foster a culture of innovation.

He said: “We must know that our businesses and professional Institute belong to the younger generation, hence, strategies should be built around them to prepare them with the necessary skills, competencies and attitudes necessary for sustainability, and that lack of this understanding has been and remain the major reason many businesses do not survive the “third generational curse”.

 Opara championed the concept of “Future” as the cornerstone of his strategic agenda. He underscored the importance of sustainability in all aspects of business, encompassing environmental, societal, and economic factors.
This approach, he said, aligns with the need for long-term success and aligns with the concept of a product’s life cycle.

“The environment, society, and economy comprise the three pillars of the sustainability paradigm. Long-term objectives of a   corporation include environmental sustainability centred on threefold profitability, society, and the planet, whereas short-term objectives are solely concerned with economic gain. Organisational sustainability is contingent upon its responsiveness and achievements.

“Organisational sustainability is a holistic organisational strategy that enhances the capability to adapt to technological, environmental, social, economic, and political or institutional dynamics.

“ To achieve this, firms need competent leadership, a respectable talent pool, resources, organisational behaviour, and a culture that addresses sustainability issues and creates organizational sustainability as a whole,” he stated.

While speaking on his tenure’s performance highlight, Opara said the tenure was able to facilitate an expansion process where a total of 23,688 new members were added to the numerical strength of the institute.

He said that  for the first time, the institute crossed the N1 billion mark by achieving a Net Operating Surplus of N1.37 billion in 2023 when compared with N837.9 million achieved in 2022.

Total assets, he said, also grew to over N9 billion in 2023 from N7.8 billion in 2022 while for the first time also, the cost-to-income ratio for the year ended December 31, 2023, was 50.72 per cent as against 59.41 per cent in 2022.