Access Bank Will Cut Staff Salaries to Avoid Layoffs
Access Bank, one of the biggest in Nigeria with a large workforce and acquiring Diamond bank is set to cut staff salaries to avoid laying off its workforce. This is coming due to the effort the Coronavirus lockdown has had on the Nigerian economy.
In a video leak that has now went viral on Twitter, Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe said he has agreed to take a 40% pay cut and hinted at job loses for some staffs.
“We probably don’t need as many security men as required, even to the fact that we are not going to have all our branches open between now and December.
We certainly don’t need all the security men. We don’t need all the tea girls. We don’t all the cleaners. We don’t need all the tellers et cetera et cetera. So that number of staff which represent 75% of our staff strength, I think, is the one we basically need to speak with their employers with a view to getting them to rationalise to the level that we think will be necessary to basically sustain a mean but actually a customer service-oriented institution,” Wigwe said.
The process is expected to begin from May unless business conditions improve and some management will be getting a 40% pay cut as well, Bloomberg reports.
Access Bank’s acquisition of Diamond Bank in 2019 has led to a 31% increase in its operating expenses. With the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and a crash in oil-prices, organizations have had to take measures in order for business to continue running.
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Wigwe promises the bank will revert to what’s normal when the situation of things improves.
“What is important is that these adjustments are what is required at a time when we see Armageddon when we see great difficulty coming in, to make sure that if there is one institution left standing in this country as a bank, it must be Access Bank,” said Wigwe.
“We appreciate the fact that it is going to hurt people but we necessarily have to take that adjustment to ensure that we protect our franchise and make us stronger as we move into the future.”
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