Forty top managers of Ecobank Nigeria Plc were on Tuesday sacked by the bank in an exercise which market watchers attribute to its reaction to the biting economic hardship in Nigeria.
The rank of those sacked ranged from Assistant General Manager, Deputy General Manager and above whose monthly salaries range between N1 million and N2 million.
The affected top management staff of the bank were handed their sack letters from the bank’s head office in Victoria Island, Lagos on Tuesday.
The bank is said to be going through tough times as a result of crippling economy, occasioned by dwindling oil prices and the crumbling of the naira to dollar.
One of our sources, a senior manager, said the bank had been undergoing restructuring in recent times in trying to survive in a fast collapsing Nigeria economy, but admitted that the current sack was the first time top echelon are affected.
The manager said: “You know the bank has been laying off staff at mostly junior level, but this is really the first time that level managers are involved.
“As things stand, no one is sure who is next as there are strong indications that the first set of sacked 40 managers may just be the beginning of a long knife.”
According to the insider, the source of revenue to the bank had trimmed since the hardship began biting hard, noting that it is affecting all Nigerian banks and that since Ecobank had not been making money, there was no way it could continue to pay the huge wage bill of top echelon staff.
“Ecobank is not the only bank facing the biting effect of the economy and the bank is only trying to trim its wages,” another source said, adding: “Since those at the top earned more, it decided to sack many at the top level.”
Austen Osokor of the Corporate Communications Department of the bank said Ecobank did not just sack top managers, but that it has been undergoing restructuring exercises in recent time.
Osokor promised to send the bank’s detailed position on the exercise.
First City Monument Bank had earlier in the year sacked over 700 staff.
No fewer than 300 others are said to be on the line for sack by FCMB in the next few weeks.
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