The Group Executive Director of United Bank for Africa Plc, Liadi Ayoku, on Wednesday, challenged Africa’s academic community to overhaul the training curriculum in financial institutions across the continent to reflect current technological realities.
This, according to him, will reflect in the modern business expectations and ensure the relevance of graduates to economic growth and aspiration of African countries.
Ayoku, in a keynote address during the annual lecture of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Lagos State University (LASU) titled: “The Future of Finance – Technology at Play” on Wednesday said finance graduates and professionals must know that it is no longer business as usual, following the fast-changing technological landscape.
According to him, “I am not certain if the finance and accounting graduates of today are familiar with modern financial software packages, including global accounting and financial reporting standards.
“Have they been imbibed with the ready-to-market soft skills like leadership, communication, commercial acumen, flexibility/openness to change and strategic vision?
“If not, I will like to propose an overhaul of the curriculum to accommodate these,” he noted.
According to him, with technology replacing basic financing, the finance professional that would excel in the future must be quick to retool and adapt to changes.
“Traditional knowledge of finance is getting stale in today’s business world and indeed there is a dire need for retooling our skills if we must remain relevant n tomorrow’s financial world. Technology is fast replacing the basics of finance,” he stressed.
According to Ayoku, financial reporting is increasingly being automated, just as data analytics is demystifying performance analysis, following which tomorrow’s finance professionals must have capabilities for business intelligence and cognitive analysis.
“We must apprise ourselves of the most recent technology and continue to retool our skills to remain relevant today and into the future,” Ayoku said.
The Chairman of the occasion, Dr Rotimi Oladele, the Executive Secretary, Institute of Entrepreneurship, commended Ayoku for the profound paper worthy of equipping account graduates for a future driven by technology, while also praising the chairman of UBA, Tony Elumelu for his contribution to entrepreneurship in Africa, describing him as a ‘global brand of the rarest value’.
He said LASU would benefit from its collaboration with the entrepreneur, noting that without “doubt, Tony Elumelu is not just a Nigerian of rare value to Nigeria but a Premium African of rarer value and of course a Global Brand of rarest value. Tony Elumelu today as an ultrapreneur is known all over for breeding entrepreneurs and start-ups in thousands and with millions of dollars ceaselessly in support for sustainability.
“We believe LASU partnering with Elumelu could be the best testimonial of befitting support to the most multi-cultural and multi-tribal university in Nigeria. The profile of LASU Staff and studentship speak for this fact,” he said.
Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Lanre Fagbohun, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oyedamola Oke, thanked UBA for its support and sponsorship, noting that a bank that believes in the support of education is indeed a special institution.
Photo caption: From left, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University, (LASU), Prof. Oyedamola Oke; Executive Director and Guest Lecturer, Liadi Ayoku; Dean, Faculty of Management Science, LASU, Prof. Babatunde Yusuf; and Executive Secretary, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Chairman of the Occasion, Dr Rotimi Oladele, during the 2019 Annual Guest Lecture of the Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS), where Liadi spoke on: “The Future of Finance; Technology at Play,” at the university campus in Ojo on Wednesday, June 19, 2019.