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Business News of Thursday, 30 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Customers react as Access Bank lay off 75% staff, announce pay cut

Access Bank Access Bank

The Management of Access Bank has revealed plans to lay off 75% of its support staff as well as introduce pay cuts for senior management.

In a leaked video obtained by MyNigeria.com, CEO and Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe issued guidelines for laying off bulk of its staff and operating on a lean budget.

According to Wigwe, the plan is to cut off the bulk of its support staff and introduce a pay cut for permanent staff.

Wigwe's words: "So we probably don't need as many security as we require. Even for the fact that we will not have all our branches open till December. We don't need all the cleaners, we don't need all the tellers et cetera et cetera."

"That number of staff which represent 75% of staff strength is the one we need to basically speak with their employers with a view to getting them to rationalise to the levels we think would be necessary to sustain a lean customer service-oriented business," he added.

Moving onto the issue of operational cost, Wigwe said it is very tricky as he announced a pay cut for himself and other members of staff.

"I will be the first to take the hit and I am taking the largest pay cut which is 40%. The rest have to cascade through the institution. Everybody has to make some adjustment of some sort," the bank chief said.

As much as the CEO tried to douse the narrative, he stressed the essence of creating an institution that would stand the test of time with the hope of things getting back to normal.

"What is important is that these adjustments are required at a time when we see armageddon or when we see great difficulty coming in, such that if there is one institution left standing in this country as a bank, it must be Access.

"We know it's a difficult decision but we have to make adjustments to ensure that we protect our franchise to make us stronger in the future," Wigwe concluded.



The comments were not pretty.

















The bank recorded a profit of N40 billion for the first quarter of 2020, down from N41.1 billion recorded at the end of March 2019, representing a 0.5% reduction in profit after tax, as reported by MyNigeria.com earlier.