As the country continues to face uncertain economic climes, Ecobank Nigeria has joined the ranks of organisations downsizing their workforce as over 1,040 of its employees have been dismissed.
This comes on the heels of announcements that Diamond Bank has sacked over 200 workers while First Bank recently stated that over 1,000 staff would soon be laid off.
According to Punch, the sacked workers which included full time and contract workers, was initially 1,400 before it was reduced to a little above 1,000.
It was also gathered that the bank also converted over 200 outsourced personnel to permanent employees.
The managing director of Ecobank, Charles Kie explained that the conversion was in line with the bank’s commitment to developing and growing talent by nurturing its people along their career paths and giving them access to higher responsibilities.
His words: “The bank, in its renewed drive for optimal performance, has in addition realigned certain roles bank wide to ensure improved efficiency. This necessitates the exits of some staff who were adequately compensated.
“This is in furtherance of a market repositioning exercise designed to strengthen the bank’s business across all markets where it operates.”
“Our focus is to improve the quality of service to our customers as well as our operational efficiency.
“We understand that people are our key assets; so, we have emphasised the need to reward our best performers, continue to re-invigorate our people, while also opening up new opportunities for talented and committed people to join us as permanent employees. At the same time, based on our repositioning plan, we had to disengage some staff, while ensuring that, in line with industry standards, they are treated fairly.”
Ecobank Nigeria is part of the Ecobank Group which has presence in 36 countries in Africa. It posted a N40 billion decline in its profit for the 2015 financial year.
