By Fola James
Standard Chartered Bank has thrown over 500 of its Nigeria employees into gloom at the start of the New Year following the lender’s decision to close half of its branches in the country.
The London listed commercial bank said on its website that it “employs over 900 staff and sees Nigeria as a growth centre.” More than half of this number will be asked to go home in line with the ongoing restructuring.
Obvioulsy, business has been very bad for the bank in the last few years, coupled with the corona virus pandemic that affected bank business in most part of last year. In response to these headwinds, the commercial bank which operates 25 branches across the country until lately has decided to close down 13 branches for business.
According to Bloomberg, the bank has decided to close down about half its Nigerian branches in order to focus more on digital banking. The news platform quoted insiders in the bank as saying it has faced intense pressure from mobile money providers and now want to play active role in digital banking.
Already, the management of the bank has shut down some of its branches since last December and more are expected to follow in due course, Bloomberg said.
But top sources in the bank informed the magazine on Monday that some employees will have to go in the ongoing restructuring process. “There’s no way the bank can continue to keep staff that are no longer useful to it. The bank has already met with the staff and concerned union and the management are working on the severance package for those that will exit the bank inevitably,” a source in the bank said.
Another source said: “the bank has been facing a tough time. The COVID 19 headwind only made the situation worst. And with the arrays of fintech companies and mobile money providers coming up, the bank must find a way to remain competitive as it tries to strengthen its mobile banking arm. It’s unfortunate that some of our best staff will have to go under this rationalization process”.
Bloomberg quoted sources in the bank as justifying the need to strengthening mobile banking and recruiting agents to reach new customers and handle cash deposits and withdrawals across Nigeria, in response to fintech boom that’s put much of Africa at the cutting edge of the revolution in mobile money.
The report cited Access Bank Plc and First Bank of Nigeria as some of Nigerian banks that have stopped opening more physical branches. Rather, the banks are now building networks of authorized agents and people within communities to sell their products and services in order to cut cost.
Standard Chartered has focused on corporate banking since establishing a presence in Nigeria in 1999. But it’s recently looked to expand its retail base and outlined a target in 2019 to grow the number of its customers to 500,000 in about two years by using digital technology to onboard clients faster.
The lender also plans to start digital lending to process small loans quicker and increase the volume of retail credit, the report said.
