The harsh economic climate has continued to take a hit on banks resulting in mass sack of employees and pruning of auxiliary staff.  Last year, several banks including UBA and Ecobank shed weight. The trend continued towards the end of the year with Heritage Bank retrenching  400 staff in December with indication that more would join the jobless crowd this quarter.

NAN reports that the bank, in October 2014, acquired Enterprise Bank with about N56 billion (281 million dollars).

A top management source in the bank, who pleaded anonymity, said the sack cut across the top, middle and low cadres.

He said that the mass sack was creating apprehension and fears among the remaining workers

The source said that the remaining workers, especially workers from the former Enterprise Bank, feared they could be disengaged anytime.

He said that workers from the former Enterprise Bank were the most affected in the ongoing restructuring exercise embarked on to improve the bank’s profitability.

NAN reports that the bank embarked on the massive sack in spite of the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige’s directive to financial institutions to desist from the sacking spree.

Mr Fela Ibidapo, the bank’s Head of Corporate Communications, however, told NAN that the figures were not correct.

Ibidapo said that the mass sack was not limited to the bank as it cut across all operators in the industry.

There have been media reports of the bank’s financial instability which the bank denied. NAN