The Bank of Kigali (BK) has graduated its second cohort of 24 students from the BK Academy who will join the country’s banking sector with the goal of financially transforming the lives of Rwanda.
The graduation of the 2nd batch of students, who successfully completed a three-month Entry Level Training Program (ELTP) training program was held in Kigali city this October 19, 2023, and presided over by the Bank’s CEO Dr. Diane Karusisi.
The first cohort graduated in November 2022 following the launch of the academy August in of the same year, with the intent to build a youthful and innovative workforce that can contribute to the bank’s long-term goals of maintaining its lead in the country’s economic transformation.
Dr. Diane Karusisi
The academy students, who were selected among 750 university graduate applicants in various fields, besides finance, underwent rigorous training composed of 62 courses offered by both local and international workforce training institutions.
This year’s BK Academy graduation was full of pomp, energy, and a sense of celebrating another journey of welcoming a new generation of future BK employees determined to improve BK’s status quo by onboarding new innovations, services delivery, and making the bank a reference financial institution in Rwanda.
The 24 trainees, of which 50% are women, were selected from different educational backgrounds and fields of sciences, economics, finance, international business, mechanical and civil engineering, agriculture, and public health among others.
After three months of training, the best students with high marks in all aspects are recruited as BK staff in different departments and others join the financial sector with better and improved skills and determination to impact the sector’s growth.
BK’s Chief Executive Officer, Karusisi said that this year’s graduation leaves her with a warm heart feeling and happiness about BK’s challenge and dream come true- to create a future of bankers who can serve the bank and country despite trainees having had to undergo a short but grilling training.
“It melts my heart to be here. I see great people; great leaders; I see the future for Bank of Kigali. Our challenge now is to keep you inspired, dreaming, creating, and developing because that is how we can shape the future. I look at you and I have hope that BK is going places.’’ Karusisi said.
Karusisi stated when she looks at where BK has reached, and the ambitions of the new workforce, she’s inspired to keep investing into the bank to have it go further beyond the present.
Sacrée Luminaire Umutoneshwa, one of the trainees who emerged top of her cohort with 92% overall grades, said that after graduating in Accounting at the University of Kigali, she wanted to join the BK family, so as to contribute to the bank’s transformation using her talent in hard work, multitasking and innovative financial solutions but most importantly making BK a household bank for all.
Lincoln Mihigo, another graduate trainee, who was already a BK staff member but chose to apply for the program said that he was missing skills in risk assessment in core banking which polished his earlier acquired knowledge in risk assessment in the insurance sector.
Danny Rubayiza, the 2nd cohort (Alias “Inganji”) graduate’s representative said that the academy has helped build bonds, and team spirit with a bigger ambition of conquering in everything they do in the sector.
Besides the entry-level training program, BK Academy also trains its existing employees for the improvement and advancement of their professional capacity and service delivery.
This year, the bank graduated a group of 25 staff members in its fourth cohort of the Management Trainee Program who also had three months of rigorous training and tasks to innovate beyond the normal.
The fourth management trainee team- alias “Imena” managed to create a new innovation dubbed the “Data-Driven Organization Project” that will enable the bank to use its existing data analytics to respond, create, and offer better services.
The team committed to using the data to ensure quality to enhance decision-making and to contribute to BK’s strategy to become a data-driven organization.
