Nigerian banks lay off 8,584 staff in one year

As the businesses restructured to adapt to the new normal, the banking industry is not left out as the number of employees in the industry reduced by 8.3 percent compared to the number of banking staff in December 2019.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Selected Banking Sector Report, in the fourth quarter, the number of banking staff dropped by 8,584 to 95,026 as of December 31, 2020, compared to 103,610 which was in the employ of banks in 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the operations of banks with many branches closed to reduce contact and many of the affected staff had been contract staff. In the heat of the pandemic, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed that banks not lay off any worker without its approval.

The data released by the NBS showed that most of the staff relieved of their duties last year were contract staff as the number of executive staff increased significantly.

A total of 5,552 contract staff had been laid off in the course of the year reducing the number by 12.2 percent from 45,350 to 39,798 while the number of junior staff had declined by 5.78 percent or 2,306 from 39,896 to 37,590 at the end of December last year.

Similarly, the number of the senior staff had declined by 4.39 percent or 1,799 to 17,381 from 18,180.

The number of executive staff rose by 39.67 percent in the course of the year, compared to 184 executive staff in the industry as of December 2019, executive directors in the industry increased to 257 at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, the total value of credit allocated by the bank stood at N20.37 trillion as of Q4 2020. The oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors accounted for the highest credit allocated to the private sector by the banking industry.

The sector got credit allocation of N3.93 trillion while the manufacturing sector got a credit allocation of N3.19 trillion.

Total non-performing loans in the industry amounted to N1.233 trillion accounting for 6.02 percent of the total loans. The level of non-performing loans had reduced compared to 6.06 percent which it was at the end of 2019.

A total volume of 3.464 billion transactions valued at N356.47 trillion was recorded in Q4 2020 as data on Electronic Payment Channels in the Nigeria Banking Sector revealed. Online transfers dominated the volume of transactions recorded.

Also, online transfer transactions valued at N120.27 trillion with a volume of 2.227 billion was recorded in Q4 2020 according to the NBS data.