About 872 Nigerian Students sat for the first ever Chartered Institute of Financial Analysts (CFA) Exams in Nigeria on Sunday, June 23rd, 2018. The exam was held at the Landmark event centre in Victoria Island Lagos.
Marniee Nottingham (British Council, Country Examinations Manager), Banji Fehintola, CFA Nigeria President.
Nigerians for years travelled to Ghana, the United Kingdom and other countries to write the CFA exams, a situation that had caused a lot of discomfort and financial burden for hundreds of students. Nigeria has about 250 CFA charterholders.
For years, negative narratives and perception about Nigeria have been blamed for not holding the exam locally.
Others also cited the monthly environmental sanitation that used to hold across the country as another snag. According to the President of CFA Society Nigeria, Banji Fehintola, “he is very glad that the Society has been able to change the narratives and put Nigeria back positively on the global map.”
However, in a successful breakthrough, CFA Society Nigeria led by Banji Fehintola, and British Council Nigeria worked strenuously to ensure that the exams are held in Nigeria for the first time this year. Now, the exams will not only hold in Lagos, they will also hold in Abuja starting from December 2018.
According to Lucy Pearson, Country Director for British Council Nigeria, conversations held months back between the CFA Institute team and the British Council exams team in Nigeria and culminated into the decision to hold the exam in the country.
Nairametrics founder, Ugodre was at the event and spoke to Banji, who confirmed that the event will now hold in Lagos and Abuja every year and simultaneously in both locations in June and December. The WorldWide President, Paul Smith also expressed his satisfaction at the turnout and was greatly impressed by the level of participation and conduct of the examination in Africa’s largest economy.
Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) credential is held by over 150,000 professionals around the world. Organisers at the event also held a post-exams party for the candidates with food, drinks, and music served immediately after the exam. Most of the students were young, and mostly under 30. It is also understood that the number of candidates that wrote the exams would have been more.
Standing – Leilani Hall, Dave Uduanu
All CFA Institute and CFA Society Nigeria reps
According to Banji, the decision to write the exam in Lagos was finalised after some students had already made ticket and travel reservations, making it difficult for them to change mid-way. They are however confident that the candidate numbers will grow tremendously in future exams.
With the exam now holding in Nigeria, revenues such as forex, air travel, hotel accommodation, food and other logistics lost to other countries, will now be retained in Nigeria, a major economic boost for the country.
Note: This article has been updated to correct the number of CFA charter holders from Nigeria