Ecobank Nigeria Lays Off 1,040 Employees

Ecobank Nigeria Limited, on Wednesday, June 1 sacked 1,040 of its workforce rather than the initial 1,400 penned down for disengagement by management, a source revealed.

The downsizing exercise, which cuts across all cadres of its workforce including junior, middle and top management positions, comes at a time majority of banks are grappling with poor profitability over harsh economic realities.

To this end, Ecobank took this measure to shore-up its dwindling profitability due to its exposure to oil sector loans, it was learnt.

Ecobank Nigeria, a member of the Ecobank Group, as at March 31, 2016, had almost 19,142 workers from 40 different countries.

Ecobank Nigeria alone has over 9,000 staff, which over 46 per cent of the entire workforce for the group.

The lender however, converted over 200 outsourced personnel to permanent employees, to enable them enhance their contributions to its bottom-line. The bank also reassigned many other employees to new roles for improved efficiency.

In a statement released yesterday, Ecobank Nigeria’s Managing Director, Charles Kie, said converting qualified outsourced staff to permanent positions is in line with the lender’s commitment to develop and grow talent by nurturing its people along their career paths. For him, it was also an opportunity to give the employees access to higher responsibilities.

According to Kie, the bank in its renewed drive for optimal performance has, in addition realigned certain roles bank wide to ensure improved efficiency.

“This necessitated the exits of some staff who were adequately compensated and is in furtherance of a market repositioning exercise designed to strengthen the bank’s business across all markets where it operates.