Senator Adams Oshiomhole’s recent disclosure on Friday, 3rd of October 2025, that “About 60% of Bank Employees Are Contract Staff” reveals a structured system of labor exploitation within Nigeria’s banking sector. This practice bypasses conventional employment standards, creating a highly educated, yet extremely vulnerable, workforce.
In the Nigerian banking industry, the majority of the workforce, including roles like relationship managers, tellers, and marketers, are not directly employed by the banks themselves. Instead, they are recruited, paid, and deployed through third-party subsidiary agencies, often owned or closely associated with the main bank.
This arrangement is effectively a form of outsourcing designed to shield the bank from traditional employee obligations.
The 60% of employees designated as contract staff operate under significantly inferior conditions compared to the 40% who are direct, permanent employees:
- No Gratuity or Severance: As Oshiomhole noted, the most severe consequence is that contract staff receive no gratuity or end-of-service benefits, even after years of continuous employment. When a contract is terminated, the employee walks away with nothing but their last paycheck, eliminating the financial cushion meant to support post-employment life.
- Lesser Wages and Benefits: Contract workers typically receive lesser wages for performing the exact same duties as their permanent colleagues. They also have minimal access to crucial benefits like robust health insurance, favorable loan schemes, and enhanced pensions, as these costs are transferred to the low-paying, third-party agencies.
- High Job Insecurity: Contract tenure is often short (six months to one year) and renewed conditionally. This keeps the workforce highly motivated by fear, discourages unionization, and allows banks to shed staff quickly without legal or financial liability whenever targets are missed or economic conditions worsen.
This prevalent practice thrives due to a lack of robust enforcement of Nigerian labor laws regarding permanent employment thresholds:
- Exploiting the Agency Model: Banks utilize the legal separation provided by the subsidiary agencies to argue they are not the “true employers” of the staff, despite controlling their hours, targets, and environment. This sidesteps legal requirements for workers who perform core, permanent functions to be granted full employment status.
- Erosion of Dignity of Labor: By making the majority of the workforce disposable, the system severely undermines the dignity of labor, prioritizing corporate cost-cutting over the long-term economic security of a vast number of Nigerian professionals.
Senator Oshiomhole’s statement serves as a critical call to action, demanding that legislative measures be put in place to mandate fair wages, equal treatment, and full entitlement protection for all workers performing substantive duties within the Nigerian banking sector.
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