##ivating a culture of lifelong learning goes beyond setting aside a specific amount of budget for training every year. its ethos should be integrated with how the organisation operates – for example by featuring development as part of career progression, encouraging learning and exchange of knowledge in everyday workflows and processes, and creating opportunities for employees to reskill and upskill themselves. executive sponsorship is key and so the board and senior management must champion this agenda. equally important is the role of the board and senior management in preserving strong ethical standards and integrity throughout the organisation. fostering trust and credibility in our financial system is of the utmost importance to preserving public and investor confidence. our supervisory reviews over many years have found that institutions that are intentional and uncompromising in upholding high standards of governance and ethical conduct are far less likely to be exposed to financial and reputational risks. therefore, we expect the industry to be more deliberate in integrating strong ethics and sound risk culture throughout the organisation's operations to prevent abuse, misconduct and exploitation. to achieve this, the board and senior management must provide strong and visible leadership on the desired values and acceptable conduct not only for the institution, but also the industry that you are a part of. leaders must take direct ownership of the process for assessing and managing culture, and send a strong, clear signal that they do not tolerate fraud or predatory conduct. this must include the robust screening of prospective employees to prevent individuals that have defrauded 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches institutions or customers from re - surfacing in the industry. this industry is built on trust and that trust depends on staff of financial institutions acting with integrity, honesty, transparency, fairness and empathy towards the public they serve. ladies and gentlemen, today's launch marks a major step in our journey to realise the vision for the fsf which we set out in the financial sector blueprint 2022 - 2026. but the work has only started. i hope that the fsf will inspire talent ecosystem stakeholders into action, not just to meeting today's needs but also the future skills required for tomorrow. my goal is for all to join us in this effort to develop a workforce that continues to better support the needs of the country. in keeping with a whole - of - nation approach, we will need the support of many stakeholders : equip individuals with skillsets that can ease entry into the financial sector through relevant offerings by tertiary education providers ; development of future skills taxonomy and job - skills matching platforms that

their dealings with customers. in a few months ’ time, the bank will be issuing an exposure draft on fair treatment of financial consumers which will set out heightened regulatory expectations for all players. agents will need to exercise greater care, skill and diligence in their dealing with customers. but rules and regulations are in themselves not sufficient to create a pool of agents trusted by customers : that would require all - round, holistic professionalism – an agent who is technically qualified, fully committed and uncompromising on ethical standards. to me, it is this integrity and calibre that will ultimately guarantee the continued success of agents into the next decade, more so than any other factor. faced with a more demanding and complex business environment, agents must continuously develop and equip themselves with skills and knowledge that are relevant, and that will continue to remain relevant well into the future. there are plenty of formal programmes available to help agents progress in their technical competencies. there is also a whole host of open online courses which can be accessed anytime, anywhere, with the desire to learn is the only prerequisite. it is encouraging that various professional training courses are already being offered through namlifa ’ s financial and life practitioners council, and that one of the programmes has been accredited by the financial accreditation agency ( faa ). going forward, i hope that we will see more industry - driven standards and protocols that will assure customers that they can only expect consistent, top - notch quality service from their agents – putting to rest any public doubts that may have been caused by the few “ bad apples ” in the sector. conclusion the three areas that i have just described will require, at its core, a strong willingness to learn and adapt. the uncertainties of the future may appear to loom large over the horizon. but if we take the time to consider the lessons of our past and circumstances of our present – which i am sure will be robustly discussed today – we are likely to be surprised by how much we already know of what we need and ought to do. in this regard, namlifa is well - positioned to play a proactive role in facilitating ongoing, constructive dialogues on important industry issues that will certainly demand a concerted response by all parties. new skills and capabilities must be developed, processes need to be redesigned, and assumptions need to be revisited. would the industry be better served were it to move away from the existing “ tied agent ” model? how should entry requirements and training offerings