Bank staff levels reduce 2%, adding to inadequacy to serve 206m population
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Permanent staff levels across Nigeria’s 24 banks reduced 2 per cent from 95,026 in 2020 to 93,090 in 2021, a minor percentage but with a telling impact on an already inadequate workforce serving a population of 206 million.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed the staff strength in its newly released Selected Banking Sector Data for the fourth quarter ended December 2021 (Q4 2021).
The data also shows the number of contract staff reduced by 209 or 0.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from 39,798 in 2020 to 39,589 in 2021.
National unemployment rate jumped from 27 per cent in 2020 to 33.3 per cent in 2021, according to the report, per Vanguard.
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Emigration of bank IT workers affects customer service
More than 2,000 bank IT employees have relocated to greener pastures abroad in recent years, like many other professionals escaping bad governance in Nigeria.
Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Executive Secretary Ajibola Olude said the mass exodus of telecom experts, especially those in strategic positions in banks, is of great concern because it would lead to poor quality service.
A senior bank official who did not want her name disclosed confirmed the exit of professionals poses a serious threat to the banking system as it is partly responsible for some of the hitches experienced by customers.
“But as a responsible sector, we are working on those challenges. Banks will recruit and train more hands, invest in new infrastructure and upgrade those which need to be upgraded,” she told The Guardian which conducted the investigation.
Impact on epayment channels
Emigration of IT professionals and N45 billion Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) debt banks owe telecommunication companies are part of the reasons for the increasing failure of electronic payment channels.
Failure of USSD and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) channels has increased along with complaints, forcing a rise in visits to banking halls, an experience most customers thought they had put behind them.
Transaction failure, which began some years back, has risen significantly in the past few months, making it near impossible for customers to complete simple transactions from the comfort of their homes.
Complaints lodged with banks have increased and more customers are resorting back to across-the-counter transactions with the resultant long queues in banking halls.
“Banking apps have been crazy. I think it is a general problem. We don’t know when it will be resolved,” Temitayo Ogunjobi, who is based in the Apapa area of Lagos.