… Some Plan To Float New Banks
The 1000 staff members of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who left the services of the apex bank in December 2024 did so voluntarily, CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso has said.
According to the CBN Governor, the affected personnel were not forced out of the system, contrary to speculations in some quarters.
The revelation was contained in the submission of the Deputy Director, Corporate Service of the CBN, Bala Bello at an investigative hearing conducted by a House of Representatives Committee on Friday.
Bello also defended the N50 billion terminal benefits payable to the disengaged staff members.
He dismissed reports that the exercise was a punitive measure, saying it’s part of the apex bank’s restructuring and reorganisation programme for optimisation and efficiency.
Bello said, “They are basically ways and means through which the performance of an organisation is optimised by ensuring that round pegs are put in the right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is actually met.
“The man loading, which is the key responsibilities, key performance indicators of the bank, vis-a-vis the number of people driving the performance of that bank, is at a level where it’s optimum, balancing the human resource requirement, the capital requirement, the skill requirement, as well as the IT requirement of the bank.
“You are very much aware, Mr Chairman, the entire world is going through a process of digitizing its operations and once that is done, a lot of opportunities are created, just like a lot of redundancies are equally created.
“You have had instances where the request for staff to exit the bank voluntarily actually emanated from the staff. And I believe the Central Bank is not necessarily the first organisation to have done that. I am very happy to mention, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, that the early exit programme of the Central Bank is 100 percent voluntary.
“It is not mandatory. Nobody has been asked to leave, and nobody has been forced to leave. It is a completely voluntary programme that has been put in place.
“I believe several organisations across the world, and even within this country, both in the private sector and the public sector, are undertaking similar exercises. So nobody has been asked to leave. With lot of humility, I will tell you that this same programme that is taking place is not at the instance of the bank.
“Of course, we have our own challenges, and we know where we want to take the bank to. That is, Cardoso and his team; myself included. But this popular request actually came from the staff.
“In the past, you have had cases of stagnation and lack of career progression. I mean, in an organisation, you have got a pyramid where from each level to the next level, the gap keeps narrowing. If not, you are going to have a quasi-organisation, inverted pyramid.
“It doesn’t work. It gets to the level where you have, for example, 30 departments in the Central Bank. You cannot have 60 Directors, manning 30 departments. It’s not going to work. So, once those vacancies are filled, it gets to a level where some people, even though they are very qualified, very capable, and are very willing, but the vacancies are not there and are stagnated for a period of time.”
Mr Bello further told the committee that voluntary disengagement isn’t a new thing in the CBN, stressing that,” There are several instances in which similar exercise took place in the Central Bank.”
Continuing, he said,” This is not the first time. It’s not the second time. It’s not the third time. It has happened several times. You have had instances in which people at the top request that, look, it’s going to take me X number of years to actually aspire to become a Director in an organisation. But right now, there is no vacancy. And the person sitting next to me probably has eight years to go. Meanwhile, I have seven.
“So there is no career growth. And a lot of opportunities are out there. For example, among the people that have left, there are, like, three or four people who are going to set up a bank.
“The approach that we told them, literally, anything you want to do, if you need the support of the Central Bank, you are done. So the popular demand then was at the top; people that are stagnated, people that don’t have any career progression any longer. They have reached their peak and they are willing to go and take other risks before they get to an age where they become scared to take risks.
“You know, those programmes are actually put in place to ensure that those people are given an opportunity to actually exit, go and start other things with their lives.
“But in this particular case, based on popular request, and I came with the Union Leader of the bank. The staff requested that in this case, similar opportunity should be extended to other categories of staff. In the entire period that similar exercise has taken place, it’s only people within a certain cadre, within the director cadre. The deputy director and directors who feel they want to go and start some other things, and assistant directors are given.
“But for the first time in the over 60 years history of the bank, the early exit program is extended to everybody who is actually willing to take it. And this came at the instance of the staff. So it’s not mandatory, it’s not compulsory. There is no coercion, there’s no forceful exit, and there’s no intimidation for anybody to take it.
“In fact, when this same thing was approved by the bank, and it was open, the number of staff that actually came forward to take it was even very amazing. Like I told you, there are some other people that are even thinking of going to start with their own bank. Those who want to take it, took it, and those who don’t want to take it are still in the bank.”
Chairman of the Ad-hoc investigative Committee, Rep Usman Kumo, assured that the committee would be fair to all parties concerned.
Kumo said the committee would do a thorough job on the matter and submit its report to the House in the next few days.
There was uproar in the House of Representatives late last year when it was revealed that N50 billion would be paid to the affected 1000 staff members as terminal benefits.
The impression created at the time was that the staff members were being driven out of the system willy nilly.
However, with the explanations given by the management of the CBN, it’s apparent the directorate cadre of the apex bank had been over bloated over the years.
END
1000 CBN Staff Resigned Voluntarily, Says Cardoso is first published on The Whistler Newspaper