Nigerian banks have sacked no less than 1,949 of their workers, as their staff strength declined from 92,404 in the first quarter of 2021, to 90,455 by year-end.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its selected banking sector data report cited by BizWatch Nigeria, analysed that most staff that lost their jobs in the banking sector were full-time workers as financial institutions in the country decided to employ contract staff.
In the first quarter of 2021, there were 197 Executive Staff, 16,750 Senior Staff, 36,594 Junior Staff and 38,863 contract staff to bring the total number of staff in commercial banks to 92,404.
By year-end, the figures were 200 Executive Staff, 16,390 Senior Staff, 35,193 Junior Staff and 35,193 contract staff.
The data also revealed that commercial banks in Nigeria recorded salaries and employee expenses of over N602 billion in the 12 months of 2021.
According to the report, the amount spent on staff salaries in 2021 was 14.57 per cent increase when compared to N525.5 billion recorded in 2020.
A look into the report shows that banks’ 2021 staff salaries expenses are the highest since 2018.
Breakdowns show N516.74 billion was spent in 2018, N597.94 billion in 2019 and N525.58 billion in 2020.
Why Nigerian banks prefer contract staff when compared to full-time workers
For Nigerian banks, the practice of settling for contract staff at the detriment of full-time workers, has a lot of benefits.
They believe that it is a great way of managing overhead owing to the fact that the contract staff are technically not their employees, and as such, are not entitled to much by way of benefits and incentives besides their stipulated monthly pay as compared with the permanent recruits.
