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By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Through its innovative Graduate Management Accelerated Programme (GMAP), at a time when many young Africans are marooned in a maze of anxiety regarding career and job availability, one of Nigeria’s banking giants, the United Bank for African, UBA has taken it upon itself to recreate young graduates in it’s own image and teach them how to fish rather than handing out fishes to them. The bank is groomimg and nurturing a generation of future bank executives and business administrators.
GMAP is a strategic platform UBA designed to produce the next generation of leaders that will drive the bank’s growth across Africa.
With the programme, UBA has been mentoring and churning out thousands of fresh African graduates drawn from different African countries who are desirous of making an exhilarating career in banking. The GMAP- trainees- Cohorts 19 and 20- radiated fulfillment and accomplishment at their combined graduation recently held in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The chairman of UBA, MrTony Elumelu, was on hand for interactive session with the GMAP graduates. The session turned out to be a family interaction – a sort of father-children interaction – as the UBA boss masterly took them through the nitty- gritty of career growth and progression in the banking sector.
Seen for the first time by many of the freshly baked bankers, Elumelu held the young bankers spell – bound. They became awe – struck not only by his presence but also by the skillful manner he took them through the session.
For each of the GMAP graduate who posed a question to Elumelu, made a contribution or an observation, Elumelu responded with calmness, often citing graphic examples to buttress his explanation or point. He would then pose for a photograph with such a graduate amid a pat on the back and a handshake.
Counselling them on the imperativeness of hardwork, Elumelu said: “With hardwork, you can achieve your potential. Discipline and hard work are the routes to success. Hard work, passion and relentlessness are very critical to success. It is your ability to achieve your destiny that will count. We are humans and sometimes we derail but when you derail, bring yourself back. Make early life sacrifices for a better future”
Earlier in his speech, the UBA Group Managing Director(GMD), Oliver Alawuba explained that Cohort 19 of the GMAP graduates consisted of 306 exceptional young professionals comprising 192 females and 114 males. 298 of them, according to him, are Nigerians while eight others are from different African countries namely Sierra Leone (3), Uganda(2), Republic of Benin (1), Tanzania (1) and Côte d’Ivoire(1).
Cohort 20 on the other hand comprised of 414 talented Nigerians (243 females and 171 males). Alawuba described the GMAP graduates diversity as “a beautiful representation of our pan-African dream”
The GMD told the graduates that “together, you are 720 new leaders joining our UBA family. When we add you to the 3,926 graduates from Cohorts 1 through 18 and look at the 395 bright talents currently in Cohort 21 training (232 females, 163 males), we see a powerful movement: over 5,000 young Africans equipped and deployed to drive excellence across our continent.
“This is not just a programme – it is UBA’s living commitment to Africa’s future. So today, we are not just graduating individuals. We are strengthening a leadership supply chain – one that keeps UBA competitive, resilient, and future-ready.
“Furthermore, today is a celebration of grit, growth, and readiness. It is also a moment of responsibility because graduation is not a finish line, it is a handover: from structured learning to daily performance, from supervised growth to self-leadership, from promise to proof.
“Congratulations – your achievement is significant. You have completed one of UBA’s most rigorous leadership pipelines.”
Encouraging the young bankers to be steadfast and forward looking in their chosen career in order to make exhilarating career progression, Alawuba said: “We were once where you are. I want you to believe something deeply. I and the executives you see here were once like you. We started as young professionals – eager, uncertain at times, learning fast, making mistakes, asking questions, taking feedback, and trying again.
“No one handed us leadership. We earned it through discipline, competence, character, and relentless execution. So, if you take one thing from me today, take this: Your current role is not your final destination. If we could rise, you can rise too because the journey is not reserved for a special class of people. It is reserved for people who decide to grow, and then do the work.
“The real work starts now. The GMAP has prepared you with classroom learning, simulations, field assignments, and mentorship from senior executives. But now comes a more demanding test: The test of consistency.”
He informed them that as young bankers, they may find the banking train muddy but urged them never to give up. The UBA GMD enumerated enumerated the unpleasant experiences the GMAP graduates may encounter in the course of their career to include pressure – targets, timelines, scrutiny, complexity – customers, compliance, bottlenecks, and tough decisions, setbacks – disappointments and mistakes. “That is not a sign you are failing. That is the training ground of leadership. And the good news is: You have been equipped to surmount these challenges – not just with knowledge, but with structure, exposure, and the mindset that GMAP instills.
“Leading to dominate is what UBA expects from you .At UBA, dominance is not arrogance. Dominance is not volume. Dominance is excellence made visible through results, delivered with humility and integrity”, he added.
Eight non-negotiable practical habits that will separate those who merely get jobs from those who build careers, reputations, and legacies, Alawuba told the GMAP graduates are: Own your career – no passenger mindset; From today, stop waiting to be “discovered.” Leaders don’t wait for permission to add value. They show up with solutions. Ask yourself often: What problem am I solving? What value am I creating?
“Commit to continuous learning – forever graduation ends formal training; it does not end learning. Banking is evolving: digital channels, data, risk, regulation, customer expectations, and competition. Read, ask questions. Learn from seniors. Learn from peers. Learn from customers. The day you stop learning is the day your relevance starts declining.
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“Execute relentlessly – results are your loudest voice. Ideas are good. Intentions are nice. But in UBA, the currency of respect is execution. Be known for delivery – on time, to standard, and without drama.
“Master the basics – details build dominance. Be punctual. Be accurate. Know your numbers. Document properly. Follow process. Respect controls. Excellence is not an occasional act; it is a daily discipline.
“Build trust – your promotion capital. Skill can get you noticed. Trust keeps you trusted. Be reliable, discreet, ethical, and consistent. Let your name become synonymous with ‘safe hands.’
“Be a team player – nobody dominates alone. In a pan-African bank, complexity is normal, and collaboration is essential. Share knowledge. Support others. Respect diverse perspectives. Celebrate collective wins. Your growth will be faster when people enjoy working with you.
“Be resilient – never give up .There will be tough days. You will miss targets sometimes. You will face rejection. You will encounter difficult customers. You will make mistakes. Do not panic. Do not quit. Learn fast, correct quickly, and keep moving. Resilience is not denial of difficulty; it is refusal to be defeated.
“Lead yourself before you lead others. Leadership begins with self-management: Attitude, time, priorities, discipline, and emotional intelligence. If you can lead yourself with consistency, people will trust you with responsibility.”
The GMD charged the graduates to live the UBA culture of excellence as they step into the workforce fully, anchoring their career on the bank’s values and persona.
“Today is not the prize – it is the evidence that you can withstand the process. The prize is the impact you will now create. Let your work speak. Let your attitude inspire confidence. Let your values protect the franchise. Let your results earn you mentors, sponsors, and opportunities,” he further admonished the GMAP graduates.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun at the end of the event, Alawuba hailed the selection process, describing it as “very objective- based on young Africans that have gone to school, have gone through the interview process and that have gone through the training programme for about six months and today they are found worthy.
“This is a statement from UBA: That the future belongs to these young Africans. We have today almost 4000 males and females, young Africans that have passed this programme in the cohorts 1-18 and they have been so wonderful in terms of their contributions to UBA.They are very active, very energetic, innovative and they have been really key resource that we have. And as I said, they position UBA for the future, the future belongs to them. What we have done is to create an environment for them to flourish.”
On her part, the Group Head, Human Resources, Mrs Modupe Akindele, explained that a whopping 14 million young Africans applied for the GMAP but the rigorous selection process later trimmed the figure.
Akindele said: “To select GMAP participants, what we usually do is to publish the training inviting interested persons, that’s persons interested in making a career in banking. So, it is open for everyone. When we made the publication, we received a total of about 14 million applications, and we then did the short listing of those who applied.
“We have our partners who do assessment of those who were shortlisted. We first do reasoning assessment and those who scaled through will now undergo a work place simulation assessment programme where we simulate the work place. They are meant to test them on how they should behave in the work place and those who are successful now go into executive chat with our executive management.
“Those who are successful in the final selection are those that come to the training programme. We have six weeks academic session and we then have on-the-job training. So, it’s a combination of the academic six weeks programme and on-the-job training they did that accumulate into what you see you see today.
“We are hoping that as the programme continues because it doesn’t stop here, in three years time, branch managers, head of departments etc will surface from the GMAP graduates because it’s a continuum. They are our future leaders meant to succeed the executive management.This the beginning of a great journey.
“We are passionate about this because we believe in the youth of our country. We believe that they don’t need to travel outside for them to succeed, for them to have a career and for them to have a future. We are nurturing the future leadership of the country and organisation.”
Many of the young bankers expressed gratitude to the UBA for the GMAP and heaped effusive praises on the bank for graciously admitting them into its fold. They pledged to work hard to contribute to the growth of the bank and justify their training and the confidence UBA reposed in them.
One of them, Munindo Ali Sultan from Kampala, Uganda describe the training as “something very insightful because I gained a lot of knowledge from it.”
Sultan said the GMAP training is important to him because as one pursuing a career in banking, he has acquired a whole lot of banking knowledge knowledge from the training.
“The training will help us achieve our dreams and climb the banking ladder. I applied for the training in Uganda and had online studies. I also had some job training in UBA branches in Uganda and later came to Nigeria for the graduation,” he told Daily Sun.
Some of the GMAP graduates who distinguished themselves in different categories in the various UBA departments during the training were recognised and given awards. Israel Olaloye of Cohort 19 emerged best in Finance and Management. Anthony Akpela of Cohort 20 also emerged best in the same category.
In the sales category, Kafayat Orelope of Cohort 19 came tops. In Cohort 20, Favour Eda also emerged the best. In the Treasury category, Cohort 19’s Ismail Lateef came tops while Zainab did the same in Cohort 20.
In the On-The-Job Performance category, again, Ismail Lateef representing Cohort 19 carried the day while Ekenenna Nwobodo achieved the same feat in Cohort 20. Overall performance awards went to Gift Okoh and Nurudeen Musa of Cohorts 19 and 20 respectively while the second best in that category were Gift Michael of Cohort 19 and Favour Eda of Cohort 20.
Overall Best Performance awards were carted home respectively by Ismail Lateef of Cohort 19 and Anthony Akpela of Cohort 20 as the best graduating students.
