A professional qualification and a mentorship program to help a career move up
Opeyemi Olusoga, CertTF, left his engineering education behind to pursue a career in treasury. In 2022 he completed the ACT Certificate in Treasury Fundamentals and was awarded the Gay Pierpoint award Bursary Student of the Year.
Opeyemi's story.
"I have a background in Engineering, however, I found myself gravitating toward finance after my graduate years. Currently, I work as a Treasury Manager in a Leasing firm. Some of my tasks involve performing daily liquidity management & forecasting with other treasury operations and also monthly invoicing based on our various contracts. I came across the ACT Certificate in Treasury Fundamentals qualification when I was searching for training to help me gain more knowledge in Treasury management, based on my increasing interest in the area.
Studying for the program was intense for me, as I had to combine my studies with work. I developed a reading pattern in conjunction with a timetable which I made sure I stuck to. I spent 3 hours a day reading a topic, watching videos and podcasts, and finally doing all the mock tests. The syllabus is structured in an easy-to-understand manner which made the concepts in the course stick. I faced some challenges in understanding some accounting concepts, like the calculations of the Forward Rates. I had to spend a little more time on these, I and looked up more resources to better understand the steps necessary to solve possible problems. The COVID-19 pandemic affected my studies because I was more concerned about getting healthier to prepare myself against the virus, as I lost some friends because of its, which was a very traumatizing experience for me.
The qualification has helped me move up in my career, as I was promoted to a more senior level this year. I was able to use some of the newly acquired knowledge to help set up my company’s Treasury Management Policies, I helped negotiating better rates for loans by relationship banking, and also advise my management on best practices in our liquidity management to help make sure there is always available cash to help run all our costs. I look forward to taking the next ACT qualification to gain more advanced insights to help me become more experienced in this field. Also, I hope to network with more treasury managers and analysts, so that we can share ideas and help each other grow our careers in this field.
I would advise other ACT students to make use of all the resources provided by the ACT, like I did. In particular, I took advantage of the mentorship program and I was paired with Alberto Martellini, who provided me with career advice and great mentorship during that period. I remain grateful to him for his words and time and I hope to meet him in person and possibly work with him in the nearest future."
Opeyemi Olusoga, CertTF,
November 2022
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