Fidelity Bank's Kwabena Boateng calls for intentional leadership development at ACI World Congress

Kwabena Boateng, Deputy Managing Director for Wholesale Banking at Fidelity Bank Ghana, called on institutions across the financial services industry to treat leadership development as a boardroom priority rather than an HR function at the ACI World Congress in Accra. He argued that "the future of capital markets depends on how deliberately organisations identify, nurture, and invest in their next generation of talent today." He made the remarks as a panellist at the Leadership Dialogue: Nurturing the Future of Capital Markets.

Mr. Boateng outlined Fidelity Bank's two-pronged approach to developing talent from within. The first is the Orange Talent Programme, designed for high-potential employees already in the organisation who undergo rigorous selection and cross-functional training across different business units. The second is the Graduate Training Programme, which recruits fresh university graduates at the entry level and builds their capabilities from the ground up. He said that both programmes are built around structured mentorship deliberately designed so that a mentee's direct line manager is not their mentor. He also pointed to instances where professionals have been seconded to organisations in entirely different fields as a form of structured attachment.

For Mr. Boateng, "If we are not ready to invest in our people as an institution, then we are moving on and leaving something behind that will not grow from generation to generation." For Fidelity Bank, Mr. Boateng's remarks at the ACI World Congress reflect a leadership culture the bank has been deliberately building.