How to be a Successful Banker
A cross section of the Covenant University Team to the Meeting
A Sociologist, Mr Pius Adesakin, has identified self development and application as well as computer literacy as key factors to a sociologist’s success in the Banking sector.
Mr Adesakin said this at the second in the series of the Town and Gown seminar organized by the Department of Sociology titled, ‘The Sociologist as a Banker in the 21st Century: Prospects and Challenges’.
He described a Sociologist as a Social Scientist who studies societies, human relationships or people’s patterns of behavior in groups and a Banker as one who studied banking or is trained to anchor any or all of the arms of financial intermediation namely: deposit taking, loan creation, operation, financial control, audit and reconciliation, among others.
According to him, “Owing to the main thrusts of Sociology as the development of a body of knowledge and skills on human activities and social relationships that connects individuals, groups and institutions, many see it as a foundation for other professions.”
Mr Adesakin noted that the reliance of other fields, particularly banking, on the knowledge of sociologists makes it Applied Sociology. Adding that though banks welcome applications from graduates of other disciplines for several reasons, good impact can only be drawn from such fresh graduates after external and in-house training.
Some other factors that can contribute to the success of a sociologist, according to him, include intuition- ability to understand certain situations without being told and forging good relationships with internal colleagues to succeed in serving the bank’s customers.
The Sociologist also stated some of the challenges facing the profession, such as fear of figures, which limits the number of departments open to a practitioner.
“Also people see working in banks as only synonymous with high remuneration; too much emphasis on this has been the root of many frauds. Emphasis should be on making a good career of the profession, while monetary reward should be secondary”, he advised.
He highlighted other professions in which a sociologist can function as the Police and the Military, Social work, Marketing, Industrial and Labour Relations, Population and Demographic institutions, Mass Communication/ Journalism, among others.
“General services, cashiering and tellering, product development, relationship management, marketing, market research and strategy are likely areas of deployment in the banking field,” he said.
The Head of Department of Sociology, Dr (Mrs.) Tayo George, said that the seminar was designed by the University Management to promote interaction between students across levels and the practitioners in the industry with the view to impacting them with practical knowledge, skills, experiences and solutions for employability in the competitive world of work.
The Guest Speaker, Mr Pius Adesakin, obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Anthropology from University of Benin and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Ogun State University, now Olabisi OnabanjoUniversity.
Until his retirement in 2014, he was a senior Manager in Enterprise Bank where he had worked for over a decade.
Also present at the seminar were the Dean, College of Business and Social Sciences, Professor Isaiah Olurinola; Deputy Dean, School of Social Sciences, Dr Daniel Gberevbie; Fulbright Scholar, Professor Nana Derby, representative from the department of Banking and Finance, as well as other Faculty, Staff and Students of the department.
