I read on the news that First Bank PLC, One of Nigeria's "Biggest" Banks plans to reduce its staff strength by 1,000 after profits fell by 84% just within one year (between 2014 and 2015). I could not help but wonder if Nigerian Banks are really on a slide; are we to expect worse? This is not the first worrying news i am getting from the Nigerian financial system. Nigeria's Banking sector accounts for a reasonable chunk of employment in the labour market.

With the almost full implementation of TSA which clearly will take away huge profits from Banks, are investors expecting dividends in the near future? What would be the effect of this on our stock market?

Are Nigerian Banks actually empowering small businesses to grow and reduce over dependance on import especially on Technology services and Agriculture products?

Does the government actually know what is happening? Does the government have a plan for the future? I can see the job losses looming, is the government also able to see that and plan ahead? Do we have the right advisers and executives in government?

Lets discuss

Not a single comment then ...now that the Job losses have started

Op this your warning comes almost 8 months after we had started warning on nairaland. Draining 2 trillion out of the economy and stimulating with 350billion is a no brainer anyday, anytime.

It's a government of school children, where people are appointed based on who knows them, and not what they have to offer.

Go to the last CBN recruitment, I personally know a few intellectually dull fellows who were recruited as supervisors or experienced hands and just coming fresh out of school, what kind of policies do you think those ones will reel out.

Until Nigeria begins to get the best hands manning sensitive positions, "na double wahala for dead body".

TSA is a good idea on paper if our focus was just on corruption. This is my issue with it. It failed to understand the economic impact. Before someone tells me banks should do really business, it takes time to reposition. Their business cycle was disrupted over night but we were just clapping. The money we are saving through the process does not out weigh the negative impact on d economy. This government wants to worship money but not realizing the fungibility of it. It should have been left in circulation thereby creating new jobs and not just destroying. It is not only the bank staff. Even businesses and that is way more.

I heard that this tomatoes crisis is a TSA problem. It probably makes sense. There is a contingency for such an incident. It happens quite often but we just never noticed. The government refused to release money because Oga at the top interpreted it as corruption. Using maybe 400 million to prevent this is better for the whole country. Its about N2.50 per citizen but our current people are short sited on economic losses. God help us oh.

tiwiex:
TSA is a good idea on paper if our focus was just on corruption. This is my issue with it. It failed to understand the economic impact. Before someone tells me banks should do really business, it takes time to reposition. Their business cycle was disrupted over night but we were just clapping. The money we are saving through the process does not out weigh the negative impact on d economy. This government wants to worship money but not realizing the fungibility of it. It should have been left in circulation thereby creating new jobs and not just destroying. It is not only the bank staff. Even businesses and that is way more.

I heard that this tomatoes crisis is a TSA problem. It probably makes sense. There is a contingency for such an incident. It happens quite often but we just never noticed. The government refused to release money because Oga at the top interpreted it as corruption. Using maybe 400 million to prevent this is better for the whole country. Its about N2.50 per citizen but our current people are short sited on economic losses. God help us oh.

Analysis paralysis.

A lot of issues stemmed from the TSA and the govt's insistence on draining all the funds from the banking sector.

The funds were being utilised by the banks, true but it was also utilised by companies who borrow from the banks.

Income derivable from banking operations have greatly reduced. Someone mentioned once that Nigeria is not ready for credit cards because there is no character in the citizens (one of the major criteria for lending).

Why should the banks be willing to take risks on individuals with no character? They rather safeguard your funds and release to you when you have need for it.

The best we can hope for is for the banks to earn income from other avenues else it makes no sense employing staff you cannot afford to pay.

Ubiero:
A lot of issues stemmed from the TSA and the govt's insistence on draining all the funds from the banking sector.

The funds were being utilised by the banks, true but it was also utilised by companies who borrow from the banks.

Income derivable from banking operations have greatly reduced. Someone mentioned once that Nigeria is not ready for credit cards because there is no character in the citizens (one of the major criteria for lending).

Why should the banks be willing to take risks on individuals with no character? They rather safeguard your funds and release to you when you have need for it.

The best we can hope for is for the banks to earn income from other avenues else it makes no sense employing staff you cannot afford to pay.

I think I admire your line of argument, though I do not believe the part that bad character isn't why we're not ready to operate credit. I think the reason Nigeria isn't ready to operate a credit system yet is due to absense of a comprehensive database and absense of law enforcement. If advanced nations were to remove these 2 combos, their citizens will also drain their economy. The percentage of people born naturally to follow rules is very little, the rest majority follow rules just to avoid the embarrassment and punishment, then others also learn and adopt it from training.

Back to topic, the TSA shouldn't have been done without due consultation with banks who are the clear beneficiaries. I tell you, many banks have staff they don't need especially with new technology in banking, the reason they left the status quo was because they were still making huge profits from government business, I mean, look at the economy, where are the profits gonna come from businesses? How many businesses are operating profitably? When politicians pocket money meant for the economy and stash them away in banks or foreign investment, how's the economy gonna grow? Money needs to be in circulation for banks to be profitable else the job losses will continue and even may lead to another banking system collapse