Access Bank to sack staff, cut pay, says MD Herbert Wigwe

The Group Managing Director of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe has said that the bank may sack some of its staff due the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravage the world.

The GMD, Wigwe, speaking during a video conference with some of the bank’s staff said :’We probably don’t need as many securitymen as required, even to the fact that we are not going to have all our branches open between now and December. We don’t need all the tea girls. We don’t need all the cleaners. We don’t need all the tellers etcetera, etcetera,”

“The second has to do with our professional cost. Now that is one that is very tricky and it is tricky because I do understand and appreciate that its gonna, you know, bring its own pain to staff. We basically have to make the adjustments the same way you sounded when we spoke 10 days ago with respect to basically cutting down cost.

This is the reason why access bank want to lay off 75% of its staff.. From the mouth of the MD himself pic.twitter.com/dUDBeozLCu

— ??????? (@TzOlawale) April 30, 2020

“I will be the first to take the hit and I’m gonna take the largest pay cut, which would be as much as 40 percent. The rest we would have to cascade right through the institution. Everybody may have to make some adjustments of some sort.”

Access Bank, which acquired rival Diamond Bank Plc last year, had 6,898 permanent staff at the end of 2019, according to a presentation on its website. The acquisition partly contributed to a 31% increase in operating expenses. Personnel, recruitment and training costs account for more than a third of overheads after the deal boosted employee numbers and resulted in “wage harmonization” across the businesses.

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