Heritage Bank sacks 400 workers

HERITAGE BANK NIGERIA

Less than four months after Heritage Bank had denied suffering mass withdrawal of customers’ deposits, the bank has embarked on mass sack of staff.
Reports indicate that at least 400 of its workforce have been laid off within January 2017.
The bank is still smarting from a series of crises, including a query by the Nigerian Stock Exchange over share-related issues and alleged loss of investment revenue from a business partnership with a consortium of enterprises on an agric-related business.
Reports in September 2016 said the bank’s involvement in the deal stood at about $150 million.
But a representive of the workers union, Kayide Adewusi, in a phone chat confirmed that some names of staff to be sacked were compiled from various branches.

He also alleged that there were cases of witch hunting as some of those affected had clean records.
A detail of the list showed that two management staff and five branch mangers would be involved.
“I can assure that we are going to fight this because most of the names are from Enterprise Bank staff, which Heritage Bank acquired in 2014. We won’t allow this to be,” the union leader stated.
When contacted, the bank’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Fela Ibidapo, said there were some exaggeration in the figures being bandied about.
“It is not only banking institutions that are retrenching staff, other organisatuons have been on it. So Heritage Bank should not be blackmailed,” Ibidapo said.