His Highness Ruler of Sharjah attends graduation of 198 banking diploma program male and female students

HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi calls upon the banks to make a positive contribution to emiratisation process and urges young Emiratis to utilize their time in such a way that would benefit them in their professional life

HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah attended the graduation ceremony of 198 higher banking diploma, banking diploma, and Islamic banking diploma programs male and female students organized by Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies based in Sharjah.

HH called upon the banks operating in Sharjah to positively contribute to the process of emiratisation of banking career and work as per clear programs and plans. The ultimate objective of doing this is to give the graduate young people of this country the opportunity to work in all areas of banking and financial sector, as it is one of the most important economic sectors in the country.

HH also lauded the significant role played by Board of Directors of Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies headed by His Excellency Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, pointing out that management of the Institute has made great achievements and achieved significant developments in the methodology of doing things over the last years.

Moreover, HH also urged the UAE young Emiratis to invest and manage their time effectively and efficiently in their professional life, take the initiative and join such vocational institutes to acquire knowledge and science. Furthermore, HH he confirmed that Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies is regarded as one of the prominent institutes, especially that it grants its graduates a locally and internationally accredited academic certificates.

Accompanied by His Excellency Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of Board of Directors of the Institute, and Mr. Humaid Al Qutami, General Manager of the Institute, HH Sheikh Dr Sultan handed over the academic certificates to male and female graduates. In fact, the sixth batch of 49 (ACB) Canadian Higher Banking Diploma male and female students and 140 (AFS) British Banking Diploma male and female students representing the 14th batch including Abu Dhabi branch students were graduated. In addition, the first batch of Islamic banking diploma students whose total number is 9 was graduated.

The graduation ceremony was attended by HH Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, Head of Civil Aviation Department-Sharjah, Sheikh Mohammed bin Suod Al Qasimi, Head of Finance and Administration Department, Sheikh Isam bin Saqr Al Qasimi, President of HH Ruler of Sharjah, His Excellency Ahmed bin Khalfan Al Suwaidi, Chairman of Advisory Council for Emirate of Sharjah, a large number of presidents of councils, general managers and officials of commercial banks operating in the UAE as well as the parents the graduates.

At the beginning of the ceremony, His Excellency Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute delivered a speech in which he extended special thanks and expressed appreciation, on behalf of the board members and the management of the institute, to HH the Ruler for his kind patronage of the annual graduation ceremony and his continued support to the Institute’s activities and programs.

In this speech, Al Tayer said, “our graduates lead the way to make the future and the number of Emirati increase day after day at various workplaces, especially in the banking sector despite the formidable challenges facing us these days and campaigns fostering skepticisms concerning abilities of the Emiratis. The most serious of such challenges would be the issue of demographic structure that has become deeply rooted in the country. Therefore, this generation and generations to come have become destined to encounter such a hard challenge by gaining knowledge, science and getting involved in serious and committed work. HH also paid tribute to the role of the Emiratis working in the banking sector and the Central Bank for its initiative to establish the Institute in the early 1980s. This has made a substantial contribution in translating it leading role on the real ground and in preparing well qualified cadres to get involved in the financial and banking sector. As a result, the banking sector has distinguished itself in the private sector by creating the mechanisms and techniques and setting budgets for preparing and training Emiratis working in the banking sector. Such preparation and training can be carried out by either the Institute or other training centers at the banks operating in the country, as banking sector is regarded as the main pillar or mainstay of the economic and social development process.

Furthermore, he also said that Committee for Human Resources Development in the Banking Sector conducted continued specialized studies on how to develop abilities of and enhance level of Emiratis. These efforts contributed to increasing number of Emiratis working in the banking sector, as rate of emiratisation reached around 27.6% out of the total number of employees working in this sector in December of 2004. In contrast, this rate didn’t exceed 9.38% since the committee started its activities in 1997. In 1997, total number of male and female Emiratis working in the banking sector rose from 1278 to 5397 in 2004, with an increase ratio of 314.4%.

In addition, rate of emiratisation concerning recruitment of branch managers amounted to 53.9% in 2004 and total number of female UAE nationals working in the banking sector reached around 3283, constituting 60.8% of the total number of Emiratis working in the banking sector.

At his speech, Humaid Al Qutami commended the patronage of HH the Ruler of Sharjah to the Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies along with its purposeful and useful study and training programs to develop and enhance banking and meet its needs of well qualified Emirati human resources or cadres.
He also stated that preparing the Institute programs and regulations would require interaction with the related financial and banking sectors. He also emphasized that the Institute always sets plans and programs to cope with local and international challenges and conduct over 200 specialized training programs on annual basis. In addition, he also pointed out that the Institute introduced an insurance diploma program this year, which is considered the first of its type in the region. Moreover, the Institute is currently working on the possibility of offering a professional master’s degree in banking science by one of the prominent American universities during the coming period. Above all, he also maintained that banks operating in the UAE managed to attract 962 job opportunities in 2004 and offered 735 jobs in 2003.