The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated that the 1,000 staff members who exited the apex bank in December 2024 did so voluntarily under its Early Exit Programme.
This was disclosed by CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, during an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee in Abuja on Friday.
Cardoso clarified that the disengagement was not forced, as previously speculated, but part of a structured programme offering full benefits to participants.
Addressing concerns raised by the committee regarding the N50 billion severance package for the affected staff, the CBN governor explained that the amount was calculated based on comprehensive assessments of staff entitlements.
Represented by Deputy Director, Corporate Services, Bala Bello, Cardoso explained that the Early Exit Programme, Restructuring and Re-organisation, “Are basically ways and means through which the performance of an organisation is optimised by ensuring that round pegs are put in right holes. The manpower requirement of the bank is actually met.
“The man loading, which is the key responsibilities, key performance indicators of the bank, vis-a-vis the number of people driving the performance of that bank, is at a level where it’s optimum, balancing the human resource requirement, the capital requirement, the skill requirement, as well as the IT requirement of the bank.
“You are very much aware that the entire world is going through a process of digitising its operations. And then once that is done, a lot of opportunities are created, just like a lot of redundancies are also equally created.
“And you have had 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 organisation to have done that.
“I’m very happy to mention that the early exit program of the CBN is 100 per cent voluntary. 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.”
He also noted that the exercise is not restricted to government agencies alone, saying, “I believe several organisations across the world, and even within this country, both in terms of the private sector and the public sector, are undertaking similar exercises.”
Continuing, Bello added, “In the past, we had instances in which cases of stagnation and lack of career progression appear. I mean, in an organisation, you’ve got a pyramid where from each level to the next level, the gap keeps narrowing. If not, you are going to have a quasi-organisation, an inverted pyramid.
“It doesn’t work. It gets to the level where you have, for example, 30 departments in the Central Bank. You cannot have 60 directors, manning 30 departments. It’s not going to work.
“Once those vacancies are filled, it gets to a level where some people, even though they are very qualified, able and willing, but the vacancies are not there. And then they got to a level where they are stagnated for a period of time.”
