APPARENTLY in an effort to restore public confidence from
its earlier crises period, Bank of the North (BON) Limited, the premier bank
of the Northern region has rationalized about 1,200 of its staff,
representing about 30 per cent of its total workforce and this is
authoritative.
Those affected in the exercise include both management
and non-management staff of the bank ranging from Deputy General Managers (DGMs),
Assistant General Managers (AGMs) Principal Managers (PMs), Managers,
officers and those from the lower cadres.
Reliable sources informed Daily Triumph that the
bank which was considered as being over-staffed, had staff strength of about
5,000 which previous rationalization exercises had brought down to about
3,900 prior to the current down-sizing which saw the hundreds out of job.
Public opinions indicated that the exercise is a serious
retardation of the North�s economic development considering the current
down-turn in economic activities and rising wave of poverty largely
afflicting the region.
Some of the affected staff interviewed by Daily
Triumph considered the act as the work of God and prayed to Him to
provide another source for sustenance for them and their numerous
dependants.
Others on receiving their sack letters however, burst
into tears and those who survived the exercise also wept in sympathy of
their sacked colleagues.
Daily Triumph also gathered that union leaders have
however, been making frantic efforts to see that the affected staff are
reinstated.
Our findings further revealed that the contents of some
of the letters served to the affected staff indicated that their gratuity
would immediately be paid and those pensionable would start enjoying their
pension as retirement benefits.
In a related development, a press release issued to
Daily Triumph and signed by Baffa B. Muhammad, Principal Manager,
Corporate Affairs of the bank, explained that the staff rationalization was
done in order to cut overhead costs of the bank.
It explained that the exercise is among the various
measures being pursued in the re-engineering effort aimed at repositioning
the bank on the path of profitability and competitive advantage in the
banking industry.
The release however, assured customers of the bank as
well as the general public that appropriate measures have been put in place
to ensure unhindered service in all its branches nationwide.
It would be recalled that since its inception, the new
management of the bank had considered Bank of the North as overstaffed as
such early this year, the management embarked on what it called the
re-engineering project which started with the review of the bank�s strategic
management and business processes among others.
Thus the board of directors of the bank had then approved
the scrapping of the position of General Manager in the organizational
structure of the bank, a development which affected eight of its management
staff.
They have since April this year proceeded on retirement
after serving the bank for between 20 to 30 years with full benefits, said
the bank�s source.
Several strategic measures are said to evolved towards
repositioning the bank to address the recurring problems it has gone through
during decades of its existence.
One of the measures was the involvement of Independent
Financial Consultants whose recommendations had reportedly informed the
rationalization exercise of this magnitude.
