Bank workers groan under deposit targets: Thousands to lose jobs, experts speak on danger ahead
By Bankole Makinde, Abuja and Seyi Geshinde
Saturday, August 23, 2008
A mass wave of retrenchment will soon hit the banking industry as managements of banks across the country have reportedly resolved to do away with the services of thousands of their members of staff who could not attain the deposit target recently set for them.










There are presently close to 50,000 workers in the banking sector, out of which more than 60 per cent would ultimately join the labour market under the new dispensation.



Saturday Tribune gathered authoritatively from workers in the various banks that the management of the 25 capitalized banks, have devised fool-proof and unchallengeable mechanism to ease workers out of the system.



The move, according to Saturday Tribune source, is aimed at shoring up the deposit base of banks for expansion and enhance both their liquidity and profitability index.



To achieve this without much protest from the public, the banks were said to have set definite unattainable deposit targets for staffers to quicken their exit from the system.



For example, deposit targets set for attainment before the end of the year hover between N3 billion per branch, N1.3 billion for new intakes and N1.6 billion for old hands per annum.



To compound their predicament, the introduction of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has rendered most of them redundant as the jobs of hitherto cashier staff of banks are more or less not needed by the banks.



Not minding the fact that the economy is in near comatose, bank staff are mandated to meet the set target or bid bye to their jobs.



Worst hit, according to Saturday Tribune investigations across many banks in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are “Freshers” and diploma holders who are, out of compulsion, ordered to turn in between N960 million per person annually and Branch Managers who must garner an average of N500 million per annum, just like old staff who must turn in an average of N1.6 billion per annum.



The most liberal bank on the policy, according to Saturday Tribune research, is a first generation bank which has set a “reasonable” N5 million to N50 million deposit target for its staff per annum.



Following the development, most bankers are now looking for less demanding jobs, irrespective of the payment portfolio to get out of the logjam.



Expectedly, fresh female graduates who are good looking remained the major targets of the banks to bring in the “loot” but the ladies too were reportedly complaining that potential depositors would always demand for “sex for cash,” thus making them trooping out of the industry in droves.



The House of Representatives recently invited the bigwigs in the Banking Sector to demand from them the reason why they should engage the ladies in the “sex trade on account of looking for deposit.”



The bankers too were said to have convinced the lawmakers that the issue was that of “offer and acceptance” as no one was forcefully coerced into accepting the job, but that the banks could only survive the stringent monetary policy of the Federal Government by sourcing for funds wherever and however possible.



Saturday Tribune gathered that the lawmakers complained that using the ladies as “experimental rats” could complicate the HIV/AIDS situation in the country.



A top banker who spoke with Saturday Tribune on condition of strict anonymity, declared that the amount of the deposit target chosen by any bank was a direct reflection of its liquidity base and solvency in the banking industry.



However, speaking on the trauma that could follow the sudden lay-off of workers from their duty posts, the Head, Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof Oye Gureje, said depression could set in, thereby leading to psychological problems which were injurious to the victims and the society at large.



He said though, people have their different ways of handling the situation, many, especially, breadwinners in their families, might not be able to adapt favourably with the development when it dawned on them that they could no longer meet their daily obligations.



“If a worker is laid off suddenly from his duty post without any buffer, or certain benefits or sustenance means like pension, along the line, depression may set in and can lead to psychological problems.



“When someone who has been working before could no longer go to work or a breadwinner could no longer provide for his family, such becomes frustrated owing to the need to depend on other people for daily living.



“Again, it leads to anger and some may result to crime as a way of venting the anger on the society.



“Another is if such a person does not have the coping skill or support to sustain while still being unemployed, he/she may take to crime,” Gureje said.



Without offering the needed support, he said the victims might gradually lost their sense of worth and value when they could no longer do what they used to do or meet up with already set plans.



“But when complications begin to set in, the best is to seek for professional help,” Gureje said.



Also contributing, a cardiologist, Dr. Abiodun Adeoye of the UCH, Ibadan, said though a pathetic situation, coping with the depression that might follow depended on a person’s previous health records.



He said if those who fell victims had not had previous records of Psychiatry cases, they might get over the disappointment with time, but if they had been patients, the resultant effects could be awkward.



“Some may not be able to sleep well again or wake up early, it leads to sympathetic drive and all these are what lead to stress which is a psychiatry problem.



“In the long run, it can cause hypertension (high blood pressure) because of excessive thinking, all these are psychological disorders and depression most importantly, it is a psychiatric case.



“For some, they take to excessive eating, gaining weight and if this happens, it can lead to fatness of the heart, which is a cardiac disorder, some may refuse to eat, thereby losing weight, it affects their health too.



“But the fact is that it is not everybody that will be negatively affected, some may be able to cope with the situation, while others may not be able to cope,” Adeoye said.


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