The apex bank in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN on the
3 rd of May, 2020 came out with a directive in which it stated that it had
stopped banks from sacking any employee during this period and thus
allayed the fears of the general public on the status of the employees of
Nigerian banks in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
The Press Release titled ‘CBN, Bankers Committee Suspend Lay-offs in
Banks’ seems to have been a reaction to the publicised intention of a bank
to sack some of its staff as it had come to realise it could function without
their services during the period of lockdown.
The Managing Director of one of the leading banks in Nigeria in a
trending video had noted that the bank had come to the conclusion that it
does not need the high number of employees that it currently has to drive
its visions and achieve its objectives. This was made plain especially after
it reviewed its services in the course of the lockdown wherein it was able
to meet the needs of customers despite the closure of a large number of
its branches in all parts of the country. To the bank, it had become
obvious that technology was its major medium of providing its customers
with the banking services necessary. Unfortunately, this publication to the
whole world gathered a lot of negative reactions as people blamed the
bank for what was termed its selfish and unsympathetic attitude in the
light of the difficult times that the whole world is in presently.