Nigerian Banking Industry And Alien 'contract Staff', By Onye Nkuzi

When I was younger, banking industry was  the only industry that were employing young graduates and the pay was relatively good.

I know friends and cousins that got job during those good era.

Contract staff was alien and unknown. Banks start up pay was between 110- 250k  and it was big.

But not any more. Banks have stopped employing full time staff, even if they are to employ young graduates, it has to be contract staff.

For instance, Zenith Bank pays 70k while Diamond bank pays 50k to young graduates employed as contract staff.

Before now, Zenith bank pays 110k and Diamond pays 250k to young graduates newly employed but things have changed.

To make matters worse, Banks are not opening new branches like they used to do where these new graduates will be deployed to.

Most Banks have not open any new branch from 2014 till now rather Banks are investing in digital banking  because this is the new frontier.

In 2016, Banks in Nigeria  made 132:8 billion Naira  from alerts and e-services.

E-business income for most Nigerian banks include fees and charges earned from card usage, mobile banking and internet related transactions. Nigerian banks have stepped up their respective E-business products as Nigerians increasingly lean towards digital products.

UBA alone made 30:4 billion Naira in 2016 from e-service and they are the number 1 on the list, Opening new branch in Lagos   won't give UBA  this kind of income and the implication is that UBA for example don't employ and pay salary in the big scale they used to do let's say 15 years ago because of the disruption brought about by technology.

You don't blame the banks, I know people that have not visited banking hall for more than 2 years now. They do their banking business online and withdraw their cash through ATM.

Tech industry as it were is the only booming industry in Nigeria and the salary they pay  is what banks used to pay decades ago.

A copy writer for instance in a fledging advertising agency like Visage Media earns 100k monthly and this is not a joke.

Interns and youth corpers that works on the Tech industry earn  between 40-50k monthly, something that banks in Nigeria pay their contract staff today.

But the challenge is that Tech business can only employ few people from this huge young demography that are unemployed  and again, to work in the tech industry is harder than Bank.

For banking, you just need to know your calculation and how to use computer but working in tech industry requires creativity and native intelligence and also you have to be super smart, the industry in Nigeria is still young meaning it can only employ just few people.

Every year, Nigeria release more than  1 million young graduates into the market.

Banks are not employing on the scale they used to do before. Tech that pays well can only employ few that are creative and who has the skills to bring to the table.

This Buharis economy is not creating any new jobs. This is the bitter truth.

What then is the fate of the millions of young people we push into the Labour market every year?

We just read that 1 million jobs was recently added to the US economy under the watch of my good man, Donald Trump, here businesses  are closing down and laying their staff off.

The ones that have not closed are cutting cost and reducing the salaries of their staff, most are owing.