CBN: Anxiety fills the air over plan to relocate key departments to Lagos … fears action to render Abuja headquarters ‘useless’

CBN: Anxiety fills the air over plan to relocate key departments to Lagos

… fears action to render Abuja headquarters ‘useless’

By

Umar Audu

There is disquiet in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over plan by the new management to fully relocate major departments from the Abuja headquarters to the former headquarters in Lagos.

DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that members of staff of the apex bank, especially married women are grumbling over the decision.

This newspaper gathered that the departments penciled down for relocation by the CBN governor Yemi Cardoso are: Banking Supervision, DBS; Other Financial Institutions Supervision, OFISD; Consumer Protection Department, CPD; Payment System Management Department, PSMD and; Financial Policy Regulations Department, FPRD.

It was also gathered that 1,533 staff would be affected by the massive redeployment.

A source who preferred anonymity said the policy had already forced some members of staff to consider resignation.

“The affected departments are the major departments of the CBN. They are the only departments mentioned in the BOFIA Act [Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act].

“Moving them entirely will only further strengthen Lagos and weaken Abuja. When you move all these departments to Lagos, then what is left of the headquarters? It will become almost useless.

“Women colleagues that are married can’t cope with this decision, especially those from the North,” said the source.

The source alleged that the new management under Mr Cardoso had been hostile to the staff since his assumption of office.

“Since this management assumed office, every week an average of two staff members resign because of the hostile environment they created.

“This is on record and can be verified. The HR unit maintains the records of CBN staff, from recruitment to exit.

“The entire atmosphere of the bank is that of gloom and unease, as the staff are working in a state of fear and uncertainty due to regular threats to their jobs by the new management,” the source added.

While questioning the rationale behind the decision, the source said the move raised suspicions of a plot to elevate Lagos above Abuja and downsize staff.

“When the new management assumed office, there were rumours of plans to downsize, which it dismissed.

“But with this indiscriminate transfers of both married women and people with medical needs, the suspicion of workers is that they want to downsize through the backdoor, knowing full well that a lot of these married women will rather resign than be transferred away from their families.

“And some are saying it’s a Yoruba agenda of strategically moving units of government from Abuja to Lagos because a similar incident happened in the NNPCL Retail,” the insider added

Source: DAILY NIGERIAN