First Bank has pledged to continue to work with Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) to promote leadership development in the country.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, FirstBank Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adebisi Onasanya said this at the Guest Speaker’s Forum of the NLI on Tuesday.

Represented by the the Head, corporate Social Responsibility, FirstBank, Mr. Ismail Omamegbe, Onasanya noted that the NLI’s mission of bridging the knowledge gap between NLI Fellows and the young associates of the Future Leaders programme buttresses a core focus area of FirstBank’s corporate responsibility programme, namely, youth empowerment.

“We have partnered with the Nigerian Leadership Initiative since 2008 and are proud of our association with patriotic Nigerians who are committed to drive positive changes in Nigeria as well as promote the development and sustenance of value based leadership among Nigerians. Our partnership with NLI is geared towards promoting leadership development and supporting emerging young leaders in Nigeria as well as Nigerians in the Diaspora.

We trust that this forum will enable NLI Associates who have exhibited outstanding leadership skills in their various professions to be better prepared to lead in every capacity, while they imbibe a deeper understanding of the necessary but rewarding sacrifices and qualities of great leadership.”

The forum featured the Governor of Katsina State, Dr. Ibrahim Shema as Guest Speaker. Shema, who was represented by the Head of Service of the state, Alhaji Ali Muhammed, presented a paper titled, “The Challenges of Political Leadership.”

In his opening remarks, Chief Executive Officer, NLI, Mr. Yinka Oyinlola said the choice of Katsina State governor as guest speaker for the August forum was due to the performance of the state’s government. “Governance in ability to respond to needs of the people, and this is what is observed in activities of the state government.”

He noted that the Katsina state government is the only government in the country that spends 70 per cent of its annual budget on capital expenditure, while 30 per cent goes into recurrent expenditure. He said in addition to this the government does not have any public debt, while its capital projects are based on recommendations of Community Development Committees (CDC).

In his speech, Governor Shema said governance in the state is based on a bottom-up approach. “On harnessing the myriad demands and requests from the people for Government to provide services and projects, I established a Bottom to Top Approach Development Template through Community Development Committees (CDC) at each of the Local Government levels.

“It may interest you to know that since the inception of this Administration, from 2007 – date all the development projects we implemented in respect of roads network, Water Supply, Education, Health, Rural Electrification, Agriculture and other Social and economic intervention measures and programmes are extracted from the collated and codified demands of the people as enunciated in each of the respective Local Governments’ CDC Booklet. This has served as our foundation, setting stage for the laudable developmental projects and programmes we have executed and which has transformed Katsina State to what it is today.”