Leading lender sacks 200 staff

Media reports confirm that DiamondBankPlc has sacked 200 members of its workforce as the economic challenges affecting the country continue to batter the financial services industry.

In a statement, the bank said, “Diamond Bank recently rightsized its workforce. The rightsizing was a core strategic exercise in line with the bank’s growth objective and the will to continue the drive to optimise cost and enhance value for the shareholders at the end of the business year.

“In the bank’s last appraisal, only 200 staff whose performance scorecards were adjudged to be lower than the minimum required to drive its strategic growth plan for the business year were relieved, with the opportunity to seek employment in other organisations where their respective skills set and individual performances could be enhanced and optimised.

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“The yearly appraisal is a general industry standard and enables banks to prune their workforce and prudently allocate resources for optimum result. Diamond Bank is not an exception in the industry and therefore, had carried out its annual appraisal and found the performance of members of staff that were relieved to be below the required minimum performance level that would sustain them in the system. With its trim-and-fit workforce, the bank is sure to meet its target for the current business year.”

However, unconfirmed reports and other speculation in the media suggested that the number of workers who were asked to go was in the region of 400.

According to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, FBNHoldings, parent company of First Bank of Nigeria, had a few weeks ago said it would reduce costs by gradually cutting down on its workers by 1,000. This follows an over 80 per cent decline in its profit for the 2015 financial year.

Economic and financial analysts expect more lenders to lay off a significant number of their workers in the coming months as they battle bad loans, regulatory headwinds and evident slowdown in the economy.