One of Nigeria’s largest financial power house, Access Bank Plc, is set to sack about 75 per cent of its staff strength. It also makes plans to cut staff salaries by as much as 40 per cent. This was disclosed by the bank’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Herbert Wigwe, in a video call with staff of the company which eventually leaked on social media platforms.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Access Bank plans to make massive staff cull and salary cuts and are expected to commence in May unless business conditions improve significantly.
In the leaked video, Wigwe disclosed that in order to keep the company sustainable, Access Bank will have to lay off mostly outsourced staff such as cleaners, security guards, tellers, among others; noting that this is in view of the fact that the bank will not be having all of its branches operational until December, 2020. Access Bank’s Boss further added that the decisions are vital in ensuring that the company remains afloat; especially in view of the challenging days ahead due to the coronavirus disease outbreak.
Wigwe said: ‘‘We don’t need as many security men as required. Even to the fact that we are not going to have all of our branches open between now and December,’’ Wigwe stated in the leaked video. ‘‘We certainly don’t need all the security men, we don’t need all the tea girls; we don’t need all the tellers, etcetera. So, that number of staff which represents 75 per cent of our staff strength, is one that, I think, we basically need to speak with their employers with the view to getting them to rationalize to the levels that we think will be necessary to basically sustain a mean but actually customer-service oriented institution.’’
Furthermore, Access Bank’s CEO, Herbert Wigwe added that he would be taking the bull by the horn by taking a 40 percent salary slash and enjoined employees of the Organisation to make some sacrifice in the same fashion.
”I will be the first to take the hit and I’m going to take the largest pay cut which will be as much as 40 per cent. The rest I will have to cascade right through the institution. Everybody may have to make some adjustments of some sort.’’
Watch the Access Bank VIDEO here
These occurrences in the financial sector and the Nigerian economy at large indicate the dire situation the coronavirus pandemic has put Nigerian businesses into. Not only banks have felt the brunt, the oil sector has also experienced a recent melt down following the global crash in oil prices.