The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has advised organizations on the need to ensure good talent management, saying the level of continuous development programmes in organizations is currently low.

The professional accountancy body added that requisite training remained relevant to an organization’s success, regardless of its status.

Speaking at a talent management seminar organised by ACCA, Country Manager, ACCA Nigeria, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Ademola, said securing the right talent is one of the biggest challenges facing Chief Finance Officers of organisations.

Mrs. Ademola said, “We have very talented Nigerians who have not been managed well enough in their places of work.

“We want to teach employers how to manage their talents and also the expectations of people. We are here with employers and Chief Executive Officers. The next meeting will be with employees.

“Last year, we found that only 20 per cent of organizations have talent strategies for their finance teams.

“We found that most talent management strategies were not strategic at all – they were informal, sometimes run in isolation of other departments and not as a part of a wider integrated plan. This cannot continue.’’

She added that talent management was broader than the individual, saying that ‘it is about managing aspirations and bringing a diverse range of talents together across the organization for the benefit of the business.

“It is about boosting the finance function’s credibility, both internally and externally.

“There are tremendous opportunities ahead of us that those organizations, who put talent at the heart of their finance functions, gain competitive advantage.”

One of the facilitators, who is the Regional Director, Team Building Africa, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle, said, ‘The educational system has really failed. So, what is happening now is that people are employed without relevant skills and knowledge to perform at the levels where they are supposed to start.’’