The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has reiterated that the 1,000 staff members who exited the bank in December 2024 did so voluntarily and were not compelled to leave the institution.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso made this statement on Friday in Abuja during an investigative hearing conducted by the House of Representatives report of the ad-hoc committee
The committee was set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the staff members’ exit and the allocation of a N50 billion severance package for the affected individuals.
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Cardoso emphasized that the staff chose to participate in the voluntary Early Exit Programme, which allowed them to leave with full benefits.
Represented by the Deputy Director of Corporate Services, Bala Bello, Cardoso explained, “The Early Exit Programme, Restructuring and Re-organisation are basically ways and means through which the performance of an organisation is optimised by ensuring that round pegs are put in right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is actually met.”
Bello elaborated, “The man loading, 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 that the entire world is going through a process of digitising 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 organisation to have done that.
“I’m very happy to mention that the early exit program of the CBN is 100 per cent 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.”
Bello further pointed out that such initiatives are not exclusive to government institutions, stating, “I believe several organisations across the world, and even within this country, both in terms of the private sector and the public sector, are undertaking similar exercises.”
He continued, “In the past, we had instances in which cases of stagnation and lack of career progression appear. I mean, in an organisation, you’ve got a pyramid where from each level to the next level, the gap keeps narrowing. If not, you are going to have a quasi-organisation, an 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.
“Once those vacancies are filled, it gets to a level where some people, even though they are very qualified, able and willing, but the vacancies are not there. And then they got to a level where they are stagnated for a period of time.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Bello Kumo, explained that the committee’s task was to prepare a report for the House of Representatives.
He remarked, “Let me start by saying that the House of Representatives, the 10th National Assembly, understand that CBN is implementing the Restructuring, Reorganising and the Early Exit Program.
I don’t know whether the CBN Governor can explain or brief this committee on the objectives of the Restructuring, Reorganising and Early Exit Programme to this committee.
“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?” he inquired.
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