The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) is angry with the Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, over the unwholesome practice of engaging contract or outsourced staff in the banking sector. The Managing Director of the corporation, Alh. Umaru Ibrahim, told Council Members of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, in his office in Abuja, that the practice was detrimental to the overall health, corporate image and soundness of banks.

A statement by NDIC’s head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Haddi Birchi, quoted the MD as saying that bank examination reports had indicated that the high incidences of fraud and forgeries in the banking system had been linked to outsourced or contract staff. According to Alh. Ibrahim, “In as much as regulators appreciated the necessity for banks to cut costs, it is incumbent on all stakeholders to fashion out capacity building and other strategies to motivate all employees to contribute positively rather than engaging in criminal acts that impact adversely on the entire banking system”.

The NDIC CEO also expressed concern about the plight of female employees in the banking industry. He noted that banks often engaged female employees and set for them very high targets on deposit mobilisation and other asset creation ventures, which put undue pressure on the female employees. According to him, although some improvement had been recorded with regards to the situation, there was still need to provide a more conducive working environment in order to attract and retain a talented female workforce in the sector.

In his response, the President of the Institute, Otunba (Mrs) Debola Osibogun admitted that over 75 per cent of fraud cases in the sector had been traced to outsourced bank staff who were neither professionals nor members of the CIBN. She regretted that the Institute had no control over the banks but disclosed that a Committee of the Institute was already working with heads of operations of banks on the challenges being posed by the outsourced staff and would soon submit its report to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for consideration.

The CIBN President also said the Institute had been mandated as the agency for competency framework for banking industry by the CBN, adding that the CIBN had visited banks’ academies and had issued accreditation certificate to the academies of the First bank, Access bank and Guarantee Trust Bank. To further strengthen professionalism in the sector, Otunba Osibogun said that the Institute had harmonised the industry code of conduct which had been signed by all bank workers. She added that the institute was seeking co-operation of microfinance banks’ workers to sign the document.