Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Association of Charted Certified Accountants (ACCA) has advised employers in Nigeria to formulate the right policies that would help in training and retaining talents among their workforce.
The call was a fallout of the latest research findings by the global body for finance professionals where it was revealed that young Nigerians finance professionals top in the global entrepreneurial drive.
The report also shown that 95per cent of the country’s young professionals want to start their own business in their next career move or later in their careers, compared to 81per cent globally.
The research titled ‘Next Generation’ surveyed the career aspirations of the younger generation in finance today.
Polling over 740 young people under the age of 36, the global body for professional accountants has discovered Nigerians also have aspirations for leadership, with 40 per cent seeing themselves leading a finance team; and 46 percent seeking a different role in a different area of finance in the future.
According to the findings from the report, 71 per cent Nigerians in their current role feel that they have a strong relationship with their manager while and their colleagues 81per cent, but they do not feel career paths are clear or transparent in their organsiation.
A third feel that their career success is more dependent on who they know, and what they know, and only 31per cent consider their current organisation offers sufficient opportunities to achieve their career goals.
Commenting on the report findings, country head, ACCA Nigeria Toyin Ademola said, “This is a clear signal for employers that they need to have the right policies and the right training to hold onto their talent. Stifled and frustrated career goals will lead to people moving on, so formal training and learning is clearly a need.”
The results also revealed the factors that make an employer attractive to young Nigerian talent. Top of the list at 96 per cent is the opportunity to learn and develop their skills; the least attractive is the work location at 66per cent and the employer’s brand at 76per cent.
Ademola said further, “If Nigerian employers want their staff to stay then they need to offer great training and development, and also job security. The whole package is important – but it’s interesting to see that work location and work life balance does not matter as much as the chance to develop skills and abilities.
“Some 78 per centof respondents said that on the job learning was the most effective means of developing their career. From this research, we see that Nigerians are optimistic about their future careers – 86per cent say the see a long term future for in the finance profession.”
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