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Not less than 789 junior staff in Nigeria’s banking industry lost their jobs between January and June 2018,ccording to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). NBS stated this in a report entitled: “Selected banking sector data: Sectorial breakdown of credit,e-payment, channels and staff strength – Q2 2018,” released at the weekend. Specifically, the study stated that the number of junior staff in the banking industry stood at 40,549 as at the end of the second quarter of this year, compared with 41,338 as at the end of Q4 2017.
This is even as the report further shows that the number of contract staff hired by deposit money banks (DMBs) increased by 11,596 during the same period, that is, from 32,359 as at the end of Q4 2017 to 43,955 as at the end of June this year. Further analysis of the NBS report, however, indicates that the number of junior staff employed by DMBs increased to 40,549 at the end of the second quarter of this year from 40,444 in Q1 2018. Similarly, the study shows that the number of senior staff employed by DMBs had been on an upward trend in the last six months, as their number increased from 16,568 as at the end of Q4 last year to 17,144 at the end of the second quarter of 2018, translating to 576 additions. However, this figure is 13.53 per cent lower than the 19,826 reported by the NBS for the corresponding period of 2017.
In addition, the NBS data indicates that the number of banks’ executive staff went up from 161 at the end of the second quarter of 2017 to 210 at the end of June this year.According to the report, the total staff strength of DMBs in the country stood at 101,861 as at the end of the second quarter of this year compared with 75,607 in the corresponding period of 2017.
“As at Q2 2018, total number of banks’ staff, increased by 13.67% QoQ from 89,608 in Q1 2018 to 101,861,” the report added. It stated that of the 101,861 total staff strength of the banking industry as at the end of the second quarter of this year, commercial banks, merchant banks and Non-interest banks employed 100,590, 515 and 756 staff respectively.
Further breakdown of the figures shows that the industry, as at the end of June 2018, had a total of 213 executive staff, 17,144 senior staff, 40,549, junior staff and 43,959 contract staff. Specifically, commercial banks had a total of 183 executive staff, merchant banks had 20, while noninterest banks have 10. Also, the data indicates that commercial banks, as at the end of Q2 2018, employ a total of 16,905 senior staff; merchant banks, 174 and non-interest banks, 65. For the junior staff category, the report shows that commercial banks had a total of 39,909 such employees; merchant banks, 288 and non-interest banks, 352. Significantly, the study reveals that contract staff comprise the largest segment of banks’ workforce, with commercial banks, again having the highest number of 43,593.
They are followed by non-interest banks with 329 and merchant banks with 33. Analysts point out that Nigerian banks have been cutting staff strength in recent years, but increasing the number of contract staff as part of efforts by the industry to conduct more business online thereby saving costs.
The development has, however, been blamed for the current high rate of fraud in the industry. For instance, in its 2017 Annual report released last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed that despite increased efforts by regulators and operators to curb the scam, the number of recorded electronic fraud cases in the banking industry increased by 28 per cent last year, rising from 19,531 in 2016, to 25,043 and resulting in a loss of N1.63 billion.
The Head of Operations at a Lagos branch of a midsized bank, who declined to be named, pointed out, in a chat with New Telegraph, that with more banks deploying contract staff to increasingly more sensitive positions in a bid to cut costs, the likelihood of these workers – given their meagre salaries – succumbing to the temptation of getting involved in fraudulent acts also increases. “Before now, contract staff were not assigned to Automated Teller Machine (ATM) watch duties. You will also hardly find them being told to perform customer service duties. But all that has changed. Furthermore, in the past, most banks usually set a maximum value of between N200,000 and N500,000 as the limit for risky transactions that a contract staff can undertake, but these days, this limit has been raised to N1 million.
“Yet these are people that are paid N60,000 compared with full time staff that earn between N120,000 and N200,000. Of course, it is not difficult to see why some of them (contract staff) will not be able to resist offers from fraudsters, especially in these hard times,” the bank official stated. Indeed, the CBN Director, Banking and Payments System Department, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, told journalists that the apex bank had advised lenders to desist from giving sensitive banking roles to contract staff as they may not have a stake in the financial institution. He said: “A temporary staff may not have a stake in the bank so to say. So, it is encouraged that if they have staff that are not permanent, they should not give them responsibilities or roles that will expose them to critical functions of a bank.”
Also, Managing Director and Chief Executive of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, had, in recent times, warned banks against the use of outsourced staff. In fact, in 2015, he revealed that bank examination reports indicated that over 75 per cent of fraud cases in the banking sector were traced to outsourced bank staff. The NDIC boss also stated that in as much as regulators appreciated the necessity for banks to cut costs, it was incumbent on all stakeholders to fashion out capacity building and other strategies to motivate all employees to contribute positively rather than engaging in criminal acts that impact adversely on the entire banking system.
Source: The New Telegraph
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