By Babajide Komolafe
An atmosphere of fear and pity has descended on the banking industry following the retrenchment of 3500 staff by three banks within one week.

On Monday, Oceanic Bank sacked over 1000 while the previous Friday Intercontinental Bank and UBA PLC sacked 1500 and 1000 respectively.

This development has occasioned an atmosphere of fear as most bankers now approach each day with trepidation not sure if that would not be the last day at work. Also bankers who were formerly the other of professionals have become the object of pity in the eyes of the public.

“You know our industry has become an industry of pity. Banking job is no longer the dream job in town”, said a banker in reference to the recent decline in the fortunes of Nigerian banks and bankers.

In deed there is no better way to capture what has befallen the banking industry since August 14th 2009, when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sacked the chief executives and executive directors of five banks. Suddenly an industry that is famous for declaring jumbo profits and mouth watering dividend declared loses amounting to over a trillion naira.

And an industry that is noted for generating employment in thousands suddenly began to sack en mass. As at the last count five banks have sacked 5000 staff while others are preparing their sack list.

Across the industry and among bankers there is palpable fear, anxiety and apprehension. “Everybody is afraid”, said Tope, a staff of First Bank Olowu branch in Ikeja. “We hear the bank wants to sack again and it might be up to 1000 this time around”, she said adding that the problem is that we don’t even know the criteria. We have been asking what the criteria are but no answer.” “I have stopped worrying”, Chinyere said , “I won’t allow retrenchment fever kill me. I still have my certificate so I can still get job elsewhere.”

But for most bankers the challenge is more than getting another job, that is even if there is a job waiting out there. The unemployment situation is scary with millions of graduate yet to secure job years after they left school.

The challenge for most bankers is that they are used to a high standard of living courtesy of high remuneration in the industry and the easy access to cheap loans. Most of them drive posh cars, live in high brow areas where the rents are quite staggering. Many of them have taken loans to finance various forms of asset acquisition from cars to houses. It is not their fault.

Credit is the commodity of trade in the industry and hence patronising their banks also means taking loans or buying credit from the bank. The result is that every banker has one loan or the other to repay. “You know we bankers live on credit”, a manager with Oceanic bank said. On top of these are the many relatives and friends that depend on bankers for sustenance. Many of them have junior ones whom they assist to pay their school fees up to university as well as parents and elderly relatives who depend on them for economic support from time to time.

That is why unemployment to a banker is a colossal misfortune not only to him but to his family.
Kwara State_born Mustapha is a former staff of First Bank. He was employed on February 4, 2008, confirmed in March 2009 and appraised in April 2009 and to his surprise, he was one of the 485 staff retrenched by First Bank on October 16. His father, a retired UBA staff was dazed.

Mustapha’s employment has brought lots of smiles and hope to him and the family who looked up to him as the bread winner with the added responsibility to sponsor his sibling’s education.

The story of James is even more pathetic. He was one of the over 1000 staff sacked by Oceanic Bank on December 21st, two weeks after his wedding. The his new wife wept uncontrollably upon hearing the sad news lamenting that her in_laws would accuse her of bringing misfortune to their son.

Kunle was also among those sacked by Oceanic Bank. He sobbed like a baby when he got to the office that morning and like other affected staff discovered he couldn’t log in to the banks’ computer system, indicating he has been disengaged.

He is the sole provider for his family of three children and wife. His wife used to be gainfully employed. But due to the demands of taking care of their three children they both agreed she should resign and she did. Now both of them are unemployed.

One of the most frustrating thing aspect of the mass retrenchment and which made it very painful for the affected bankers is that for most of them they were not sacked because they were incompetent or did not perform. They were just sacked.

Kemi was one of the 300 sacked by Stanbic IBTC in October. In fact five of them were sacked at the Elephant House branch of the bank in Alausa in Lagos state. The five of them she said were the most hardworking of the 15 staff in the branch, a situation which devastated not only them but also the branch manager who could not understand the criteria used by the management that made the five of the most dependable staff to be included in the sack list.

This makes their sack very painful for the affected bankers. They had laboured and even slaved for the banks. Most of them especially those that live in Lagos leave for work 4.30 am in order to bit traffic and be in the office by 7.30 am, work till 7.00pm and most times don’t get home till 10.00pm.

Some even work on Saturdays and Sunday and as a result don’t have time for family and friends and even for religious programmes . Many of them have subjected themselves to humiliating experiences in order to meet the impossible deposit targets constantly given them by the banks, and they have borrowed against future income to finance high taste induced by the banking environment.

And despite all these sacrifices they found themselves rejected by the banks which they had once proudly and painfully served.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/12/28/fear-pity-as-3500-bankers-lose-jobs-in-one-week/

tell those ex bankers to get another job Sorry,,

FMK:

tell those ex bankers to get another job Sorry,,

Will people complain if it's that easy to get another job?.
What sector is vibrant enough to employ such number of people?.

honestly I do not know who to blame in this,former MD's looting or SLS.In GOD we trust.

A pity, just goes to show that enterpreneurship in whathatever form should be the watch word 4 every1, shalom

whatalife:

By Babajide Komolafe
On Monday, Oceanic Bank sacked over 1000 while the previous Friday Intercontinental Bank and UBA PLC sacked 1500 and 1000 respectively.

Well I have from a reliable source that Oceanic bank practically scrapped its marketing unit and only those within were affected. Seems like a rational thing to do giving that its going to take a lot of convincing to get the average Nigerian to open an account/transact with the bank but in the same vein, those individuals were not responsible for the bank's misfortune. Its a sad thing for Nigeria.

that is sls reforms at work.

George_D:

that is sls reforms at work.

No. It's the aftermath of Soludo sleeping on the job in the latter years of his stewardship.

3500 gone, perhaps could have been tens of thousands if any of the big banks had gone under.

Thank God I left the banking industry a while now. I been tell some of my friends not to see the bank as their comfort zone. There are lots of things and ideas one can introduce in naija and make it over nite. E.g those wey introduce pure-water business don be millionaires.

George_D:

that is sls reforms at work. 

would u rather he kept quiet abut wats hapening? IMO better a few thousand than the entire staff of a bank when it collapses(which , definately,would have happend if not for SLS)

It is a pity whta happened to the bankers.

I am a banker too but nothing has happened in our bank yet.

I have 2 issues here. First to the affected bankers and second to those still left in there including me.

Now that these people have been sacked from their bank where they have 'slaved', what next? Complaining will not bring back their jobs neither will crying. I am not being heartless in fact I don't know what January will bring in my bank. They should begin to look forward to a way out. Even if they cry till eternity, I assure them they will only develop headaches and maybe spend the little they have left to treat whatever ailment may result. It is not easy but it is possible. Let them look forward.

However, i want to bring something out which here is directed at those of us still in the service and also applicable to those who were sacked. Do bankers really live a life where they have plans for the future or they are living in the wealth of the moment. I am asking this because of the way i see some bankers manage their money. We are so ostentious that we can even take loans to look good and impress others. W3e eat at the best restaurants, buy our clothes are the most expensive boutiques, we just like to show off. Are these really lives of those who have plans for the future. This may not be far from the reason why many are lamenting as if the world has come to an end. We have lived false lives without preparing for times like this such that when incidences like this sacks happen, they are taken unawares.

It is high time those of us still around begin to prepare for unforeseen events like this. There so much that can be done. Just do it.

I know what I have done and what I have helped people to do that today we are not afraid of things like this. Opportunities abound in this country to make it. Forget the claim that bankers are so busy they close late. Truth be said, apart from those in operations, bankers especially marketers have no excuse. They move around and pass plenty opportunities by but come to complain of nothing to do.

Well, with the present happenings in banks, I hope that they will sit up.

I can help any banker here who desires to discover what opportunities to take advantage of while working now to prevent such lamentations as above.

A word is enough for the wise

how many times can these particular thread be posted

This thread should be merged by the moderator of this forum.

@ gabu4u
u've said it all, these guys leave above their income, which is very catastrophic in times like this, wow i feel deeply 4 the unfortunate ones, i'll advice youths look on d side of  being an enterprenuer

WORD OF WISDOM FOR THE REST OF US: NEVER LIVE ABOVE UR INCOME, CREATE MULTIPLE SOURCES OF INCOME, START UR OWN BUSINESS WITH WHAT U HAVE AND WHERE U ARE, DO NOT ENVY OR COPY OTHERS, TRUST GOD. THESE HAS BEEN SO HELPFUL EVEN IN TIMES OF RECESSION. WHAT KILLS MOST PEOPLE IS SIMPLE AND INCLUDED IN ALL I HAVE SAID ABOVE. WE SHOULD ALL BE WISE B4 IT IS TOO LATE. TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE.

banking, advanced slavery but u make money

gabu4u1:


I can help any banker here who desires to discover what opportunities to take advantage of while working now to prevent such lamentations as above.

A word is enough for the wise

Can we talk?

I'm a banker with one of 'em strong banks and arguably one of 9ja's finest but I'm not taking chances.

Mail me: oladapo@usa.com

Wat! cnt bliv dis. so 3500 people ar now jobless. Wat a world

gabu4u1:

It is a pity whta happened to the bankers.

I am a banker too but nothing has happened in our bank yet.

I have 2 issues here. First to the affected bankers and second to those still left in there including me.

Now that these people have been sacked from their bank where they have 'slaved', what next? Complaining will not bring back their jobs neither will crying. I am not being heartless in fact I don't know what January will bring in my bank. They should begin to look forward to a way out. Even if they cry till eternity, I assure them they will only develop headaches and maybe spend the little they have left to treat whatever ailment may result. It is not easy but it is possible. Let them look forward.

However, i want to bring something out which here is directed at those of us still in the service and also applicable to those who were sacked. Do bankers really live a life where they have plans for the future or they are living in the wealth of the moment. I am asking this because of the way i see some bankers manage their money. We are so ostentious that we can even take loans to look good and impress others. W3e eat at the best restaurants, buy our clothes are the most expensive boutiques, we just like to show off. Are these really lives of those who have plans for the future. This may not be far from the reason why many are lamenting as if the world has come to an end. We have lived false lives without preparing for times like this such that when incidences like this sacks happen, they are taken unawares.

It is high time those of us still around begin to prepare for unforeseen events like this. There so much that can be done. Just do it.

I know what I have done and what I have helped people to do that today we are not afraid of things like this. Opportunities abound in this country to make it. Forget the claim that bankers are so busy they close late. Truth be said, apart from those in operations, bankers especially marketers have no excuse. They move around and pass plenty opportunities by but come to complain of nothing to do.

Well, with the present happenings in banks, I hope that they will sit up.

I can help any banker here who desires to discover what opportunities to take advantage of while working now to prevent such lamentations as above.

A word is enough for the wise

Your words are pure, simple and intelligent. I thank God for not being immersed in to the high life of bankers, this made me quit earlier to chase my dreams. However, I pity all of them; it's not going to be easy to adjust.

Well, what a pity. However I find it difficult to judge whether the right thing was done by CBN or not. While I do not have any back up data to support my intuition here, most times I think about the total profits declared by Nigerian bank as a whole and in comparing that with our GDP, it raises so many unanswered questions. My suspicion had always been that these profits are mere paper profits and worth nothing, however I may be wrong. Maybe I am probably understating the size of Nigerian economy.

Yet on the other hand, I nurture the feeling that CBNs decision has not been probably thought through properly. The ripple effect of the sacking of these bankers will not doubt linger for a very long time and in my view will prove counter-intuitive to the very thing they(CBN) wish to achieve. There are no doubts that bankers in Nigeria live almost entirely on credit because of the high lifestyle they need (or pretend to need) to maintain. The effect is that with these sacking they wont be able to repay on their loans/credits and thus leading to defaults. One by one, this leads to systematic failures in the entire system as the banks will either be forced to foreclose on the assets that were financed by the loans or will have to write them off. Either way, it will lead to massive losses by the banks and this will no doubt prove a bigger challenge to the stability of the banks.

This is just a mirror image of how the housing bubble in the US started and the eventual burst that led to the global reccession.

Well, for those affected in one way or the other by these sackings, there are still other things to engage with (una certificates never expire abi)

This is a lesson to everyone, not to live above ur income. Do not live an extravagant life, cos u don't know what will happen in the next minute. To the sacked bankers take heart and know that when one door closes another door opens, just pray and hope to God.

yeah. another 3500 dumped back into the labour market and later we will wonder why crime is on the increase in 2010!

The only surety is to own your own business, this is a wake up call to everyone of us still in the system, Develop your personal biz skills on time, create more streams of income, be disciplined with your expenses, most bankers get caught up in this convenience purchases, 'Use now and pay later scheme' , Their accts are always in the negative, and then when unexpected happens , they are caught napping and stranded,
Entrepreneurship is the way in 2010, No matter how little start something !

I wish them the very best !

Yes we can !

pao2, nice words there.

What most people dont understand is that the government is trying to EVEN keep the banks (which can at least re-hire) rather than losing the banks and all possibilities of re-hiring in future.

People shoud quit living in this myopic "understanding" they think they have and see it from a global point of view. You are a banker BECAUSE you were or are employed by a bank; NOT because you were born that.

Those of us that are not or were not know that you have the possibility of exploring other fields OR look inwards and get some focus to your life.

Building a "Banker" future or as they will call it "Career" is simply trying to be the jack of all trade because the core of banking is investment (which include those loans you call bad). No one succeeds that way!

My advise for any one is to stand by a profession and you can sell your services to a bank, there is no such thing as a banker - It just doesn't exist.

Does anyone have the contact/database of all the sacked bankers? I'd like to get across to them.

This is serious. . .

this is a pointer in the direction that job creation should be our watchword, an employer will always drop an employee when it is no longer conducive for him to pay the salary, as an employer, you are the one that can sack yourself. A word is enough, an average nigerian coming out of a tertiary institution will want to work in a bank.

it is well.God as a reason