Over 80% of workers in the financial sector are casuals, according to the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI).
Ms. Oyinkan Olasanoye, the organization’s president, stated this at the monthly Labour Writers Association (LAWAN) event in Lagos.
Ms. Olasanoye, who bemoaned that casualization is one of the union’s primary challenges, claimed that casual workers were being recruited for the majority of the sector’s fraud.
“The percentage is as high as 80 percent, and as a result, we have issues with casualization,” she said. The Labour Act allows for contract workers, but we believe that those workers should be treated with dignity and be appropriately compensated.”
“It’s easy for them to be used as a trojan horse, so some of the current fraudulent activities in the sector are made easier by the fact that some of them aren’t professionals. They have good reason to be bitter because they haven’t received proper training.”
The COVID-19 epidemic, according to Ms. Olasanoye, caused a drop in production in the sector, affecting their targets.
“You know, we work in the private sector, and some of our employers believe that the only thing that matters to them is profit, and the COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of issues that prevented us from meeting our target expectations,” she explained.
“It may please you to know that the majority of us signed some company policies that specify that at the end of every year, after appraisal, the least performer will be eased out based on productivity without quantifying what makes a least performer.”
She went on to state that the union had devised a labor-friendly policy, stating that casual workers would not be exploited and dumped, and that they would be unable to be readily disengaged under the program.
Ms. Olasanoye praised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its recent decision to prohibit the selling of foreign currency to bureaux de change, limiting foreign currency sales to commercial banks exclusively. She thinks it’s an excellent policy.
She acknowledged it was long overdue, however she expressed reservations about how it will be implemented.
“We applaud the Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent ban on forex sales to BDCs,” she stated.
“We are concerned that BDCs have allowed themselves to be used for graft over time, so this is necessary. They’ve shifted their focus away from their goals.
“However, we have reservations about the implementation. One of the challenges we face in this country, as we all know, is policy inconsistency.
“This is because, if precautions are not taken, some BDCs will continue to operate illegally, resulting in a lack of control. As a result, there may be a forex scarcity.
“If this happens, it will pose some challenges in the market because commercial banks may be unable to meet importers’ forex demands, which will have a negative impact on the forex trading market.”