Former Nigerian Oceanic Bank Director Engaged Unwanted Workers

Former CEO of Oceanic Bank Cecilia Ibru of Nigeria is facing scrutiny over the collapse of the financial sector inside the oil-producing West African state.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Ibru engaged 19,000 unwanted workers –CBN

Written by Auwalu Umar, Kano
Nigerian Daily Trust
Sunday, 24 January 2010 22:33

Embattled former managing director of Oceanic Bank Mrs Cecilia Ibru engaged 19,000 workers for the bank through a job consultancy firm fronting for her and the bank did not need such employees, according to Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Fielding questions on a Freedom Radio’s special programme in Kano at the weekend, Sanusi also said the bank at present had 199 branches spread all over the country that were yet to be completed. Of the number, he said, only 66 were approved by the central bank for their construction.

The CBN boss said Mrs Ibru collected N20 billion as rent for the bank’s new branches that are under construction. Sanusi said the former bank chief executive also paid herself huge amount of money through the job consultancy company for the employment of workers who are yet to assume office in the bank’s new branches that are yet to be completed.

Sanusi said the ongoing reforms in the country’s banking sector became imperative given the level of decay in the sector. He said CBN cannot allow corruption to continue there and doing so, he said, would indicate that the apex bank approves of the dirty deals in the financial sector.

Giving more lights on the ongoing retrenchment in the country’s banks, the CBN governor said the exercise was in order because most banks used depositors’ monies to pay staff salary which he said was totally contrary to the banking ethics. He cited the example of Oceanic Bank that pays N4.2 billion every month as staff salary, saying the profits the banks generates are not enough to pay such huge monthly staff emoluments.

He also said his major challenge today was to continue to develop the micro-finance institutions in order to tackle the problem of poverty in the country, saying Malaysia and Tunisia are today better off because of the impact the micro-finance institutions they established had made in poverty eradication.