Bank workers live in fear as job losses continue

The wave of sacking that characterised the banking sector a couple of years back has not abated as the axes are dangling on more workers, ADEMOLA ALAWIYE writes

Indications have emerged that more bank workers will lose their jobs in 2014 following cost-cutting measures about to be introduced by the deposit money banks in order to mitigate the effects of some regulatory policies on their profitability.

Since the era of the global financial crisis in the mid-2008 and the special audit test carried out on banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the banking sector has witnessed a chain of job losses estimated at more than 15,000 by industry watchers.

Our correspondent learnt that the recent increase of Cash Reserve Ratio on public sector funds from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, among other policies, was the main reason for embarking on the staff rationalisation programme.

An investigation showed that while some banks were considering ‘casualisation’ as an option, other banks were considering the establishment of more e-branches where transactions would be made electronically without cash. The e-branches, our correspondent learnt, will have only one bank official, who will assist customers that are not literate.

 

Virtually all the banks in the sector sacked their workers in 2013 in a bid to reduce cost and increase profitability. Some banks also closed branches that could not break even.

Since the completion of business combination between Access Bank Plc and Intercontinental Bank Plc; Ecobank Plc and Oceanic Bank International Plc; First City Monument Bank Plc and Finbank Plc; with the emergence of Access Bank, Ecobank and FCMB as core investors having consumed the three others, thousands of workers in the sector have been laid off.