Nairametrics| The National Bureau of Statistics released 2016 banking sector data on Tuesday. The data shows activities in the banking sector for the year covering three broad areas; Payment option, Credit allocation and Staffing.
A look at the staffing data included in the report shows the total number of staff in the banking sector dropped from 81,122 in Q1 2016 to 76, 812 in Q4 2016, representing about 5% drop between the first and fourth quarter of the year. The sector thus lost about 4,310 jobs alone between the first and fourth quarter of the year. This reflects the harsh economic environment for businesses in the country.
NIB = Non Interest Banks
CB = Commercial Banks
MB = Merchant Banks
Note: NIB submissions indicates that, Contract Staff were not included in the total bank staff as in the case of CBs & MBs
The report shows banks cut more jobs in the junior cadre of their staff categories with about 2,209 jobs lost between the first and fourth quarter of the year. Contract staff’s, which has increasingly become the preferred option for staffing routine operations for Nigerian banks, recorded about 1, 361 jobs lost. A total of 741 jobs were also lost in the senior staff cadre as banks streamline operations by reducing top-heavy executives.
It’s also noteworthy that most of the job cuts came in the fourth quarter of the year, with about 5, 728 jobs lost alone. Job losses were recorded in all categories with Junior staff leading the way with about 2,760 jobs. Banks also cut down contract jobs with about 2,006 lost in the 4th quarter alone. Senior staff jobs were reduced by 956 jobs intensifying efforts to reduce top-heavy employees.
Ironically total staff count in the third quarter was the highest at 82, 540 suggesting that sector wide job cuts occurred in the 4th quarter of the year. This appears counter-intuitive as it is not usual for headcount to increase in the third quarter of the year only to be cut drastically just three-month later.
The report also includes other commercial bank data, which are also frequently tracked by Nairametrics. Download the report below;