Mr. Ladi Balogun, group managing director/chief executive, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited, has explained that the decision of the Bank to donate a multi-purpose Students’ Centre to Pan-Atlantic University (PAU), Lagos, is part of its strategies to invest in the future, especially that of the youth.
He added that the gesture is also in line with the commitment of the Bank to effectively support initiatives that would enhance the standard of education in the country as well as the well-being of the society.
The FCMB Students' Centre, located within the permanent campus of PAU along the Lekki-Epe expressway in Lagos, is a facility devoted to students’ recreation and socialisation.
Apart from providing facilities for informal learning, which forms integral part of the university life, the building is equipped with other amenities.
It features two main areas - a cafeteria on the ground floor and a mini-mall on the first floor. In the mini-mall are-a supermarket, a boutique, an agency banking service, a mobile phone shop, a unisex hair salon, a laundry shop as well as a coffee shop.
Speaking at the commissioning and hand-over ceremony of the Centre on Friday, December 4, 2015, Balogun, said, “we felt the need to provide the students with a conducive environment that would facilitate learning, while at the same time serve as an avenue to socialise near their hostels through basic facilities for relaxation, shopping, retail and banking services’’.
He assured that, ‘’we will continue to invest in the future and by extension, Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. PAU is the highest-ranked business school in Nigeria and we believe that in a few years from now, thousands of students would be in this institution. It is our desire to continually partner the school to provide facilities that would ensure effective teaching and learning to engender manpower development’’.
In his comment, Professor Juan Manuel Elegido, vice chancellor of PAU, stated that the building represents one of the milestones of the school in its quest to form competent and committed professionals to help build a better society in Nigeria and Africa at large. ‘’This building is very important to the university as it gives the students the opportunity to interact properly, since the students learn as much from one another as well as their teachers. We commend FCMB for providing the school with a befitting Students Centre and identifying with our vision’’, he stressed.
Professor Elegido emphasized that Nigeria needs first class universities, adding that, ‘’a country cannot be a first class country if it does not have at least three world class universities’’.
On his part, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, special adviser on Education to the Governor of Lagos state, stressed the importance of partnership between various institutions. According to him, ‘’it is clear to us that there has to be a partnership between the private sector, government and other institutions to provide the kind of education that our children deserve. For Lagos to work for all, quality education is very critical.
While commending the efforts of FCMB and PAU in actualising the construction of the Students’ Centre, he noted that, ‘’it is imperative for the country to have institutions like FCMB that would help solve problems they see in the education sector. By this gesture, the Bank and the university have added another value to Lagos state and we are proud of this collaboration’’.
Earlier in a lecture organised for students of the university titled, ‘’Developing Work Place Skills’’, Balogun, GMD/CEO of FCMB, urged them to brace up to the challenges of the new socio-economic world order so as to be successful in their chosen careers. According him, ‘’research shows that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills and people skills, while only 15% of job success comes from technical and knowledge (or hard skills)’’.
He listed communication, team work, continuous learning, critical learning, organization culture, interpersonal skills and time management as seven essential skills required by an individual or organization to effectively deliver on its services to customers.
First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited is a member of FCMB Group Plc, which is one of the leading financial services institutions in Nigeria with subsidiaries that are market leaders in their respective segments.
Having successfully transformed to a retail and commercial banking-led group, FCMB expects to continue to distinguish itself by delivering exceptional customer experience, while empowering its customers to achieve their aspirations.
Pan-Atlantic University is a private institution of higher learning in Lagos, Nigeria. Currently, the University has five main teaching and research units: School of Business Administration, School of Media and Communication, Enterprise Development Centre, Institute of Humanities and Information Systems Academy.
Lagos Business School (LBS) is part of the School of Business Administration.
