Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi
Cardoso on Friday said that staff who left the apex bank in December did so
voluntarily with payment of full benefits and were not disengaged or forced to
quit.
Mr. Cardoso disclosed this during the resumed investigative
hearing to probe the disengagement of the 1000 workers and how the N50 billion
terminal benefits were arrived at for them.
The hearing was held at the instance of the House of
Representatives Ad-hoc Committee to probe the matter, chaired by Hon. Usman
Bello Kumo.
The CBN Governor who was represented by the Deputy Director
Corporate Service, Mr. Bala Bello explained that the issue of the Early Exit
Program and the Restructuring as well as Reorganization was to optimize the
Bank for enhanced efficiency reiterated that the 1,000 members of staff were
not sacked.
He said they “are basically ways and means through which the
performance of an organization is optimized by putting, ensuring that round
pegs are put in right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is actually
met.
“The manloading, which is the key responsibilities, key
performance indicators 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 skill requirement, as well
as the IT requirement of the bank.
“You are very much aware, Chairman, the entire world is
going through a process of digitizing its operations. And then once that is
done, a lot of opportunities are created, just like a lot of redundancies are
also equally created.
“And you have had instances in which, in the past, the
request for staff to actually exit the bank voluntarily actually emanated on
the part of the staff. And I believe the Central Bank is not necessarily the
first organization to have done that. I’m very happy to mention, Mr. Chairman
and members of the committee, that the early exit program of the Central Bank
is 100 percent voluntary.
“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 organizations across the world, and even
within this country, both in terms of the private sector and the public sector,
are undertaking similar exercises. So nobody has been asked to leave. But
people who are based on popular demand, I have to be humble, with a lot of
humility, to tell you that this same program that is taking place is not at the
instance of the bank itself.
“Of course, we have our own challenges, and we know where we
want to take the bank to. That’s Cardoso and his team, myself included. But
this popular request actually came from the staff.”
“In the past, you have had instances in which cases of
stagnation and lack of career progression appear. I mean, in an organization,
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-organization, 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, they
are very able, and they are very willing, but the vacancies are not there. And
then they got to a level where they are 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, look, it’s
going to take me X number of years to actually aspire to become a director in
an organization. But right now, there’s no vacancy. And the person sitting next
to me probably has eight years to go. Meanwhile, I have seven.
“So there’s no career growth. And 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. So the
popular demand then was at the top, people that are stagnated, people that
don’t have any career progression any longer, they have reached their peak, and
they are willing to go and take other risks before they get to an age where
they become scared to take risks.
“You know, those programmes are actually put in place to
ensure that those people are given an opportunity to actually exit to go and
start other things with their lives.
“But in this particular case, based on popular request, and
I came with the Union Leader of the bank, the staff requested that in this
case, similar opportunity should be extended to other categories of staff. In
the entire system, in the entire period, in the entire time that similar
exercise has taken place, it’s only people within a certain cadre, within the
director cadre. The deputy director and directors who feel they want to go and
start some other things, and assistant directors are given.
“But for the first time in the over 60 years history of the
bank, the early exit program is extended to everybody who is actually willing
to take it. And this came 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.
“In fact, when this same thing has been, you know, approved,
was approved by the bank, and it was open, the number of staff that actually
came forward to take it was even very amazing. Like I told you, there are some
other people that are even thinking of going to start with the bank. So if the
impression comes to this place that we are laying off, nobody is going to do
this. It’s the line of anybody. Nobody did it. It’s an entirely voluntary
exercise on the part of the bank.
“Those who want to take it, took it, and those who don’t
want to take it are still in the bank. And then again, sir, the issue of
reorganization, restructuring, and I added realignment, these are basically, it
all depends on how you want to describe an elephant.
“Whether you want to describe it as a snake that has a long
tail, or whether you want to describe it as a rock because you are touching the
body, or whether you want to describe it as a knife because you are touching
the hunk. They technically mean the same thing. It’s all about optimization and
making sure that the organization, vision, and mission is aligned with the
manpower you come in, considering the manloading.
“The manloading is how many people does it take to do a particular
job, and how many hours do you need to put in. For example, if you are going to
spend 40 hours, and you have like 10 people to do two jobs, well, it doesn’t
hurt anybody. These are Nigerians. If they are there, they don’t hurt anybody.
But there are people who are actually voracious. They want to do more.
“These are the people who feel that if we have this
opportunity, we can go and start all that. And it was absolutely going to, and
you can call me anytime, anywhere, and that’s what it is. Nobody has been
forced to leave.
“Nobody has been dictated to leave. Nobody has been stamped
into leaving at all. It’s strictly voluntary.
“If nobody had taken it, we would have just close it. But
this came as a result of popular demand. Like I said, I came with a
representative from the staff unit to actually say it here.”
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Hon.
Usman Kumo, who assured that the Ad-hoc Committee will be fair to all the
parties involved in the investigation, noted that the Committee’s
responsibility is to submit the report to the House.
He said: “Let me start by saying that the House of
Representatives, the 10th National Assembly, understands that CBN is
implementing the Restructuring, Reorganizing and the Early Exit Program. I
don’t know whether the CBN Governor can explain or brief this committee the
objectives of the Restructuring, Reorganizing and the Early Exit Program to
this committee.
“And two, can you explain the Early Exit Program and what
you intend to achieve with it? When it starts, when it will end, and what is
the connection? Between the Reorganization, Restructuring and the Early Exit
Programme.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com