To demonstrate the Bank’s values -EPIC- to Ethics, Professionalism, Integrity and Customer Centricity to the inclusive growth of Nigerians, as well as support youth education and drive nation-building, the Bank has consecutively partnered with CFA Society for three years in its annual Universities Ethics Challenge. CFA Institute is a global, not-for-profit association of investment professionalsis at the forefront of setting global standards and advocating for professional excellence that ultimately benefits society by improving both investor protection and outcomes. 

The Ethics Challenge is one of the university outreach programs organised by CFA Society Nigeria for university students. The competition embodies the mission of CFA institute to promote the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence in the investment industry and this aligns with the CRS strategic approach and the objective of the Bank’s Endowment programme – the Samuel Asabia Chair for Business Ethics at the University of Lagos. 

We believe that promoting ethics in business is not only important for the reputation of our brand, but also one of the solid pillars that effectively support sustainable financial institutions.  

CFA Institute’s educational programs are designed to develop the next generation of investment professionals globally. The activities under the educational programs are carefully designed to promote a high level of professionalism and ethical practices in investment research by students from universities and business schools through hands-on mentoring and intensive training. Each participating university will be given an identical case study that focuses on ethical issues and problems that are prevalent in the local financial market and the global best practices in dealing with the ethical dilemma. The students will analyze the issues in the case study and provide recommendations.

The Ethics challenge Programme fosters unity amongst students from participating universities in an avenue for networking, discussion, analyzing of case study, problem-solving and recommending global best practices for the various case studies. The objective of this programme is to demonstrate the Bank’s commitment to ethics, professional excellence, capacity building and inclusive growth of Nigerians and support for education amongst youths and the drive for ethical values.

The 2019 Ethics Challenge held on Friday & Saturday, 15 -16 November 2019 in Abuja and Lagos for the regional and national levels respectively at FirstAcademy, FirstBank’s strategic platform for competence development, knowledge management and workplace culture change. The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife emerged the winner among 15 competing universities in Nigeria with the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Covenant University coming first runner up and second runner up respectively.