The mass resignation of software engineers in most commercial banks across the country for greener’s pasture abroad, is currently threatening digitisation in the banking sector, LEADERSHIP can exclusively reveal.
This is coming as a disincentive to the cashless banking initiative, where every banking transaction is expected to be digitised. However, the development is obstructing seamless operation of electronic and mobile banking systems across banks.
It was learnt that about 500 software engineers have, since the beginning of this year, till now, secured better offers abroad, majorly in Canada and European countries where the emolument far outweighs what they are being paid in the Nigerian banking sector as they are paid in foreign currency at a time the nation’s Naira has seriously depreciated.
Aside these 500 engineers, about 1,000 other staff have so far resigned their appointments in deposit money banks to pick up juicy offers abroad, even as there are indications that more engineers and bank staff will also join them in the months ahead as the nation’s economy becomes harsher and operating environment becomes unbearable.
The development has disrupted the succession plan of many banks as more bank staff seek greener pastures outside the country.
This mass exodus, investigation shows, was responsible for hitches in electronic and mobile banking operations of most banks in the country as they struggle to find suitable replacements for those that have left their services.
Complaints from bank customers on electronic and mobile banking platforms have intensified in recent months, making it obvious, the challenges facing the banking system.
Over the last few months, thousands of Nigerians have moved out of the country either as students or have gotten jobs outside the country.
These have affected most industries across the economy but the banking industry is beginning to feel the brunt of it. The situation has gotten so bad that it came up as an issue for discussion at the Bankers’ Committee meeting which held in April this year.
For example, a major bank in the country, having noticed the trend of resignations, had earlier moved up its promotion process as a way to encourage the staff to remain. The bank had even increased its package for the workers and promoted 450 staff. Unfortunately, less than two weeks after the promotion, over 150 of those promoted resigned and left the country.
With no bank spared the exodus of talents, the bank chief executives had resorted to finding a solution to the brain drain by coming together to train more staff for their depleting human resource.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP at the weekend on this development, president of CIBN, Mr. Ken Opara noted that, the industry is currently suffering from talent drain.
According to him, “this year alone, there is a whole lot of resignations and people leaving the industry particularly the younger ones. The figure is quite high.
The CIBN President, Mr. Ken Opara had noted that the talent drain in the sector is “basically because they feel that they need an environment where they can guarantee their job security and have a flexible working environment and also the fact that you don’t need to always dress officially to do your job, you don’t need to wear suit or tie. Where you don’t necessarily need to be in the office to do your job and can work remotely. The concept of remote working is what appeals to them.
“The concept of flexible working hours where you can work in one place and in other places is also what appeals to them. The concept of having to dress casual is also part of what appeals to them.
Then of course the fact that they don’t need to be in a particular place for a long period of time as much as possible.”
For the Information and Communication sector, the story is not so different as a lot of tech developers are either leaving Nigeria in search for ICT job that pays better or working remotely, LEADERSHIP findings have revealed.
Recruiting in the tech industry is on the rise, with foreign companies reporting they are hiring “at or beyond pre-pandemic levels,” the Robert Half Technology’s 2022 IT salary report revealed.
The most in-demand tech jobs for 2022 are Information security analyst, security analysts, Software developer, Network and computer systems administrator, Computer programmer, web developer, Computer and information systems manager and system analyst, among others, said CIO.
The managing director and CEO, eStream Network, Martins Akingba, told LEADERSHIP Newspaper that brain drain is a major challenge in the ICT sector…
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