Stanbic IBTC Impacts Young Nigerians Through Its Seventh Youth Leadership Series

Olufemi Adeyemi 

Content Creator, Salem King; Founder The Dew Centre, Omon Anenih; Chief Executive, Stanbic Holdings, Dr. Demola Sogunle; Actress, Bisola Aiyeola and Olive Enodi 

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, a member of Standard Bank Group, held its annual Youth Leadership Series (YLS) on Wednesday, 22nd of May  2024, at Multi-Purpose Hall, University of Lagos.

The seventh edition of the program which was created to upskill and empower young people to become future leaders and entrepreneur was themed “The Growth Code: Unlocking the Secrets and Strategies to Personal and Professional Success”.

The informative, exciting and memorable panel sessions which featured Actress, Bisola Aiyeola; Content Creator, Salem King; Founder The Dew Centre, Omon Anenih, Youth Development Advocate, Oyinkansola Oni  and Olive Enodi as the host also serves as a beacon of inspiration and empowerment for the Nigerian youths.

In addition to the panel discussions, attendees enjoyed captivating performance by Phillip Kayode Moses, popularly known as Pheelz, a prominent Nigerian record producer, singer, and songwriter.

In his opening remarks, the speaker, Chief Executive, Stanbic Holdings, Dr. Demola Sogunle talks about secrets, strategies for personal and educational success and how he started his journey as a consultant in Stanbic IBTC in 1989 while doing his PHD program and had three others job.

He encouraged the youth to create a time to shutdown  rewind and strategize, “start a journey with an end in mind. You have capacity to do multiple things when you’re at age 16-35, do not stop learning, continuous learning, improvement can only get you to higher level of continuous growth.”

“Imagine where you want to be and work it out. One of the secret of growing is to raise people that will take over from you. If you don’t, you’re creating risk. Success without a successor is a failure.” He said.

According to Sogunle, punctuality is crucial to businesses, encouraging youths to prioritise their mental health, subscribe to a very strong value, “integrity is what you do when nobody is watching”.

“Our bank has 20 per cent of retired people’s savings at our bank. Our core values in the company are crucial to the extent that if a staff member of the bank disobeys the traffic regulations, he will be sanctioned.

Demola, who has been working with Stanbic-IBTC for over three decades, advices the youth not to flock around with somebody who is not going anywhere.

In conclusion, he added that:

• It's important to talk about your mistake if you want to be successful. When you talk about your mistakes, you’re going beyond your error, you not holding yourself captive to your error.
• Energized other by impacting knowledge.
• Search for a better idea everyday.
• You can’t make fundamental change with rational behavior. You can’t achieve the impossible of you continue to think in a normal way
• Don’t get too comfortable with your current position. Being comfortable means that you’re undermining yourself
• You need to make the right trade-off- a situation where you make a compromise between two things, or where you exchange all or part of one thing for another. No why you’re doing it.
• See everyone one as a mentor, it has nothing to do with age, you can learn from anybody.
• Grow people around you, impact knowledge.
• Always over delivered, if you continuously over delivered, you will be outstanding.
• And be candid, be truthful to yourself.

The Manager of Data, Platform, and Growth Marketing, Stanbic IBTC, Adetutu Adeniji, stated that students who got 250 in their UTME and five credits in their O’level exams would be able to apply for scholarships on the bank platform, which would open soon.

“Last year, we sponsored 200 students with a scholarship programme worth N80m. The platform will be opened soon, as long as you have 250 in your UTME and five credits in your O’level results.”

In a her part, Nollywood actress, Bisola Ayoola, noted that timidity hinders greatness but focus promotes validation and progress

“One mistake I have learnt from was that I was very entitled. I knew I could sing and I was waiting for record labels to sign me but I realised that the entitlement mentality would not work. Shyness will hinder you from greatness. You have to constantly prove yourself. Try to put your mind to what you want to do,” she advised.

Speaking on how to monetise social media, a freelance content creator, Salem King, urged young content creators to prioritise their audience and ensure it enhances their lives

“You also need to keep in mind that content creation is not charity work. So, always put your audience in mind and create things that add value to their lives,” he remarked.

Also, the founder of the Dew Centre, Omon Anenih, encouraged students to remain calm when feeling anxious to achieve their professional growth.

The event was a unique blend of inspiration, education, and entertainment, offering attendees the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and forge meaningful connections.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings is a leading financial services group committed to driving growth and innovation in the Nigerian economic landscape and a member of the Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank by assets.

May 23, 2024