Nigerian banks sacked at least 1,949 workers between the first and last quarters of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The staff strength of the banks surveyed in the NBS exercise dropped from 92,404 in the first quarter of 2021 to 90,455 by year-end.
In its selected banking sector data report, reported by BizWatch Nigeria, the NBS analysed that most staff that lost their jobs in the banking sector were full-time workers as financial institutions in the country decided to employ contract staff.
In the first quarter of 2021, there were 197 Executive Staff; 16,750 Senior Staff; 36,594 Junior Staff; and 38,863 contract staff to bring the total number of staff in commercial banks to 92,404.
By year-end, the figures were 200 Executive Staff; 16,390 Senior Staff; 35,193 Junior Staff; and 35,193 contract staff.
The data also revealed that commercial banks recorded salaries and employee expenses of over N602 billion in 2021, which is a 14.57 percent increase over N525.5 billion in 2020.
The 2021 staff salaries expenses are the highest since 2018 when N516.74 billion was spent as against N597.94 billion in 2019 and N525.58 billion in 2020.
For Nigerian banks, the practice of settling for contract staff at the detriment of full-time workers is a good way of managing overhead. Not being their employees technically, contract staff are not entitled to benefits and incentives besides their stipulated monthly pay as compared with the permanent recruits.
