CBN staff voluntarily left service with benefits, Gov insists

By Tom Okpe

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso has said staff of the bank who left in December, resigned voluntarily, with full payment of benefits.

He reiterated that the 1,000 members of staff, disengaged were not forced to quit.

Cardoso made this disclosure in Abuja on Friday, during resumed investigative hearing to probe the disengagement of the 1000 workers and how the N50 billion terminal benefits was arrived at.

The hearing was held at the instance of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee, chaired by Rep Usman Bello Kumo.

The CBN Governor, represented by the Deputy Director Corporate Service, Bala Bello explained that the issue of the early exit Program and restructuring as well as reorganization was to optimize the Bank for enhanced efficiency.

He said: “There are basically, ways and means, performance of an organization is optimized, by ensuring that round pegs are put in right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is actually met.

“You are very much aware, Chairman, the entire world is going through a process of digitilzing its operations, and once that is done, a lot of opportunities are created, just like a lot of redundancies are also equally created.

“You have 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 organization to have done that. I am happy to mention, Mr Chairman and members of the Committee, that the early exit program of the Central Bank is 100 percent voluntarily.

“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.

“I believe, several organizations across the world, and even within this country, private sector and the public sector, are undertaking similar exercises. So, nobody has been asked to leave.

“There are several instances in which similar exercise took place in the Central Bank. This is not the first time. You have had instances in which people at the top request that looks, it’s going to take me X number of years to actually aspire to become a Director in an organization.

“The approach that we told them, literally, anything you want to do, if you need the support of the Central Bank, you are done. So the popular demand then was at the top, people that are stagnated, people that don’t have any career progression any longer, have reached their peak, and are willing to go and take other risks before they get to an age where they become scared to take risks.

“You know, those programmes are actually put in place to ensure that those people are given an opportunity to actually exit, to start other things with their lives.

“But in this particular case, based on popular request, I came with the Union Leader of the bank, the staff requested that in this case, similar opportunity should be extended to other categories of staff. In the entire system, in the period.

“For the first time in the over 60 years history of the bank, the early exit program is extended to everybody who is actually willing to take it. This came at the instance of the staff. So it’s not mandatory,

“Those who want to take it, took it, and those who don’t want to take it are still in the bank. Again, sir, the issue of reorganization, restructuring, and I added realignment, basically, depends on how you want to describe an elephant,” the Governor said.

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Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Rep Usman Kumo, assured that the Committee will be fair to all the parties involved in the investigation, noted that the Committee’s responsibility is to submit the report to the House.

He said: “Let me start by saying that the House of Representatives, the 10th National Assembly, understands that CBN is implementing the Restructuring, Reorganizing and the Early Exit Program. I don’t know whether the CBN Governor can explain or brief this committee the objectives of the Restructuring, Reorganizing and the Early Exit Program to this committee.

“And two, 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? Between the Reorganization, Restructuring and the Early Exit Programme.”