Ecobank clarifies position on disengaged staff

* Says it paid N500m to their recruiting agencies

Ecobank Nigeria PLC has said it only decided not to renew the contract of its third party recruitment agencies which expired recently and thus returned the personnel back to the agencies who recruited them.

In a statement by the bank on Thursday, it said that it was not “under any obligation to renew its contract with the service providers involved.”

The bank said that palliative measures have been put in place for the affected personnel to mitigate the effect of the termination of their contractual agreement with the bank.

“As a demonstration of the bank’s concern and compassion for the affected personnel of our contractors, palliative measures were put in place by the Bank to cushion the effect on them.

“These include payment of contract cessation packages of over half a billion Naira already paid through their employers as well as opportunity given to those with requisite qualification to apply to the Bank for permanent employment,” the statement noted.

It added that in line with its commitment to fair play, the bank also offered the affected personnel opportunity to become Xpress point agents of Ecobank.

It further noted that as part of the Ecobank’s employment strategy, it is presently training over 300 graduates in its state-of-the-art Academy which was recently accredited by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.

“These graduates are to be absorbed into the system at the end of their training as permanent staff,” it stated.