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1 week ago
15
Letters
September 10, 2025 by Our Reporter
Sir: Sterling Bank Ltd was recently decorated with the ‘Best Workplaces in Banking 2025’ award for Excellence in People and Innovation. The glossy plaque and the slogan, ‘People First. Excellence Always.’ now sit proudly in its offices. Yet, behind the glass and glitter lies a reality that is anything but excellent for the hundreds of employees who have been quietly and consistently laid off in the last six months.
Week after week, staff across directorates have been pushed out. Last week alone, about 45 people were let go. The week before that, more were handed exit letters. By the end of September, more will follow. Some are forced out under the excuse of ‘performance failures’ after impossible KPIs are imposed, while others are cornered into so-called ‘mutual separation agreements.’
Contract staff are no better. Their terms have been capped at two years at a time, renewable only if they survive performance reviews, with a maximum limit of six years. It is rationalization dressed as efficiency, but to staff, it feels like a slow bleed.
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The human cost is enormous. Anxiety stalks the branches. Families are left in uncertainty. Morale has collapsed. In an environment of fear and despair, the risk of fraud and unethical behaviour increases, even as the bank claims it is safeguarding itself. Customers should be concerned too. A fearful and demoralized workforce cannot deliver excellence in service or innovation.
Yes, employees may explore legal means, but Nigeria’s justice system is tilted in favour of big corporations. Long cases, endless adjournments, and skewed rulings often leave workers with little or no remedy. This imbalance emboldens institutions like Sterling Bank to act as they please, confident that the law cannot hold them accountable in practice.
Instead of resorting to abrupt retrenchments, Sterling Bank could have embraced retraining and redeployment, because sending people, mostly in their 40s into forced joblessness after giving their prime years to the bank amounts to retiring them to despair. It should protect staff dignity by providing fairer terms and genuine support for transitions, not just token payouts. Third, build a workplace culture that truly aligns with the award it flaunts, where “People First” means something more than a slogan.
Until then, the “Best Workplaces in Banking 2025” award will stand not as a symbol of excellence, but as a cruel joke to those who know the truth from within.
•Abiodun Charles, Ibadan, Oyo State.
English (US)