The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso said 1, 000 staff who exited the apex bank in December 2024, did so on their own accord.
Cardoso stated this yesterday in Abuja during the resumed investigative hearing on the disengagement of the 1,000 workers and payment of N50 billion terminal benefits to them.
The investigative hearing, chaired by Mr Usman Bello Kumo, was held at the instance of the house of representatives ad-hoc committee instituted to look into the matter.
Cardoso, who was represented by the deputy director corporate service, Mr. Bala Bello, stated that those who exited were not forced.
He said the staff initiated their voluntary disengagement with payment of full benefits.
He explained that the issue of the early exit programme and the restructuring as well as reorganisation is meant to optimise the bank for enhanced efficiency.
“They are ways and means through which the performance of an organisation is optimised by putting, ensuring that round pegs are put in right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is met.
“The man-loading, which is the key responsibilities, key performance indicator of the bank, vis-a-vis the number of people driving the performance of that bank, is at a level where it’s optimum, balancing the human resource requirement, the capital requirement, the skills requirement, as well as the IT requirement of the bank.
“The entire world is going through a process of digitising its operations. And then once that is done, a lot of opportunities are created, just like a lot of redundancies are also created. And you have had instances in which, in the past, the request for staff to actually exit the bank voluntarily actually emanated from the part of the staff. And I believe the central bank is not necessarily the first organisation to have done that. I’m very happy to mention…that the early exit programme of the Central Bank is 100 per cent voluntary,” he said.
Cardoso added: “It’s not mandatory. Nobody has been asked to leave, and nobody has been forced to leave. It’s a completely voluntary programme that has been put in place. I believe several organisations across the world, and even within this country, both in terms of the private sector and the public sector, are undertaking similar exercises.”
He also addressed the issue of stagnation saying: “In the past, you have had instances in which cases of stagnation and lack of career progression appeared. I mean, in an organisation, you’ve got a pyramid where from each level to the next level, you know, the gap keeps narrowing. If not, you are going to have a quasi-organisation, inverted pyramid.
“It doesn’t work. It gets to the level where you have, for example, 30 departments in the central bank. You cannot have 60 directors, manning 30 departments. It’s not going to work. So, once those vacancies are filled, it gets to a level where some people, even though they are very qualified, are very able, and they are very willing, but the vacancies are not there. And then they got to a level where they stagnated for a period of time.
“There are several instances in which similar exercise took place in the central bank, which has happened several times. This is not the first time. It’s not the second time. It’s not the third time. It’s several times. You’ve had instances in which people at the top request that it’s going to take me X number of years to actually aspire to become a director in an organisation. But right now, there’s no vacancy. And the person sitting next to me probably has eight years to go. Meanwhile, I have seven.”
He added that some of the staff who left had planned that they were going to set up a bank.
“A lot of opportunities are out there. For example, among the people that have left, there are, like, three or four people who are going to set up a bank. The approach that we told them, literally, anything you want to do, if you need the support of the central bank, you are done.
He said for the first time in more than 60 years of CBN’s existence, the early exit programme is extended to everybody who is actually willing to take it and it comes at the instance of the staff.
So it’s not mandatory, it’s not compulsory, there’s no coercion, there’s no forceful exit, and there’s no intimidation for anybody to take it.
“So if the impression comes to this place that we are laying off, nobody did it. It’s an entirely voluntary exercise.
“Those who want to take it took it, and those who don’t want to take it are still in the bank.
