Posted by Jane Okinedo on September 14, 2009 at 9:38pm
By Oluwaseyi BanguduStanbicIBTC Bank is said to have sacked hundreds of its workers over the weekend, but the exact number of affected workers is still uncertain, as the bank has not said anything on the development.But sources at the bank said yesterday that the number ranges from 200 upwards, and cuts across various cadres and divisions within the group.One of the sources confirmed in a telephone interview, "Yes, the bank sacked about 300 people," adding "Our subsidiary is yet to be affected but people are now on edge," without giving further details.While another bank source said "We don't know if we would be affected, the whole bank branches, stock broking and different operational bits are affected, but so far, it was 300 people in an organisation of... not sure of the total. I am in the asset management session with a different human resource management team, so we may still be affected."The global crisis and the recent cleansing by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has seen many bank workers relieved of their duties, similar to the pre-consolidation era, when banks which could not shore up their capital base to n25 billion, or be acquired by another bank or merge with others, had to close shop rendering their workers jobless.Shocks industryThe news of the StanbicIBTC sack came as a shock to many industry watchers, especially as the bank, along with two others - because of their foreign ownership - will not be audited by the CBN, and therefore, had no cause to fear for its operations.Besides, analysts believe that the October 2007, $5.5 billion investment for 20 per cent stake in Standard Bank, South Africa's largest bank by assets and earnings, by China's largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, should have helped get the Nigerian unit, StanbicIBTC, out of the woods.But the recent sack tends to suggest that the Nigerian unit might be in deeper trouble than anticipated, and underscores queries on why the CBN should leave the foreign-affiliated banks out of the stress audits.Also, Friday's signing of a $1 billion loan facility between Standard Bank and four major Chinese banks, apparently did not impact on the fortunes of the Nigerian unit, reputed to be one of the strongest units of the bank group in Africa.Bank UnionObukese Orere, the Acting Sectary General of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions, an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress, noted that even though it wants to take up the issue of job losses in the banks with Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the CBN governor, he admitted, "We cannot really stop these people from laying off their staff but they must be well packaged before they are laid off. That is where we come in; that those who are leaving do not suffer much. Nothing is permanent."IMF's RecommendationMeanwhile, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director International Monetary Fund, in an interview with a German magazine on Saturday, urged banks in various nations to do more to adopt financial market regulations and find exit strategies, as the global economic crisis will continue.
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