FBN Holdings Plc, which is Nigeria’s biggest bank, by assets plans to cut 12.5 percent of its workforce in the coming year to help reverse last year’s 82 percent slump in profit.
This is as the banks non-performing loans ratio stood at 22 percent at the end of March, compared with 3.8 percent a year earlier.
“We do not shy away from taking difficult decisions. We used to have above 8,000 people. We’ll push it down, gradually, to 7, 000,”Adesola Adeduntan, chief executive officer of First Bank said in an interview. “
The banks net profit fellto N15 billion ($76 million) from N84 billion in 2014, as impairments soared and Africa’s biggest economy slowed.
Adeduntan said the bank is also targeting a cost-to-income ratio of 55 percent in two years time from 59 percent today.
It’s a shame that after ruining the bank with bad loans, innocent and hardworking staff have to pay for bad decisions. First Bank has clearly lost its pride of place in the Nigerian Banking Industry.