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On behalf of the National Council and Management of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Graduation Ceremony of the NSE Graduate Trainee Programme – Class of 2019.
Now in its 4th cycle, the NSE Graduate Trainee Programme (or GTP as we call it) is a platform instituted to groom future leaders for the capital market and the Nigerian economy at large. It is a one-stop capacity building platform for passionate young graduates (under the age of 26 years) to develop the skillsets which will open up countless opportunities for personal and professional growth in the capital market.
All over the world, a compelling youth agenda is shaping the global growth and development narrative. If you consider Millennials born in the later 90s or the Generation Z born after them in the early 2000s, they:
- account for over 30% of the global population;
- constitute the newest additions to the global workforce;
- increasingly involve in government and political activism through social media;
Whereas this demographic has peaked in all other regions of the world, Africa’s youth population is expected to continue to grow throughout the remainder of the 21st century, to more than double of its current level by 2055.
Nigeria in particular is expected to be the 3rd largest country by 2050 and over 50% of that population will be youths. This brings to fore the struggle to educate and create jobs for a rapidly growing youth population.
The NSE Graduate Trainee Programme is our quest to educate and make employable young and bright Nigerians who can help shape the future of our market and this country, by nurturing them and providing them with the enabling environment to flourish as we recognise that for Nigeria to thrive we need such young leaders who would spark innovation in every sector of the economy.
The speed and complexity of change in financial markets today means that we can no longer rely solely on the education sector for specialist human capacity development. The fourth industrial revolution has placed added responsibility on the capital market with the emergence of new technologies like blockchain, tokenisation, and cloud computing to mention a few. The revolution has made the global race for talent more competitive for corporates to foster an environment in which young graduates can be equipped with requisite skills, necessary to build a sturdy professional foundation and propel them to become thought leaders and captains of industry.
The unique role played by exchanges requires a distinctive set of skills that are not easily transferrable from other sectors of the financial industry. Hence, the NSE Graduate Trainee Program has been specially designed to fulfil a demand for specialist skills by providing the appropriate talent fit for The Exchange to achieve its strategic business aspirations. In the build-up to the Class of 2019, we reviewed over 14,000 applications in 2018, which was a 79% increase from the previous stream in order to select the candidates with the highest potential to excel at The Exchange.
Today, we believe, just as we did at the onset in 2015, that we are making giant strides in the right direction by building streams of talent for the capital market.
Distinguished guests, I am especially proud to present to you, our latest set of change makers, young men and women, vibrant and talented Nigerians, who have successfully completed the NSE Graduate Trainee Programme. It takes an extraordinary personality to succeed in a fast-paced business environment as ours and these ladies and gentlemen sitting among us have demonstrated the true spirit of the African Champion through their exemplary performance in the Graduate Trainee Programme.
I felicitate with our graduates. I commend your resilience, good conduct and performance in the 11months you have been on this programme. Every end has a new beginning. Today might be the last day for you as trainees but it is also the beginning of new opportunities in your professional careers. While we have provided you with world class training, The Exchange will rely on you in the coming years to help achieve its strategic objectives. I urge you to continue to demonstrate the tenacity and creativity that brought you this far.
Our desire is to continue to evolve into a multi-asset class exchange hub through our products and services offerings while helping to grow the Africa’s largest economy. You are the vehicle through which our organizational excellence will reach the world. Our expectation is that the return on investment for this initiative will gradually spread across the capital market community and contribute to building a sustainable capital market.
Finally, I would like to appreciate our numerous stakeholders who have committed both time and resources towards the success of this programme. Special thanks go to the programme faculty for their time, dedication and willingness to impart knowledge. We are immensely grateful to all dealing member firms where our Trainees had their externship for 3 months, and to all staff of The Exchange who provided guidance and support throughout the programme.
It is our dream that this programme will create leaders for the capital market, and tonight we are pleased to announce the start of the realisation of that dream, as we will have a number of our graduands resume at CSCS Plc. We are certain that they will make us proud with the strides they will achieve there and we thank CSCS Plc for trusting us with providing them with next generation leaders.
I thank you all for listening and hope you have an exciting evening.
Oscar N. Onyema, OON
Chief Executive Officer
July 30, 2019
