Revisiting Access Banks Warped Definition of Merit and Competence

By

Omo’ba Olumide Idowu

Against repeated reassurances from relevant stakeholder institutions in the banking industry that the on-going consolidation exercise will not be synonymous with mass purge of practitioners, emerging reports in the dailies are beginning to suggest the contrary. It is however pertinent to state that no informed observer expected that the on-going reforms in the banking industry will be devoid of casualties on the labour front. This blunt conclusion is better appreciated against the background that the Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N.), the apex regulatory agency for the industry, is leading the staff rationalisation campaign.

In order not be justifiably accused of isolating the banking industry for target practice, let me also readily admit that the sack gale is not in any way limited to the banking industry. In fairness to the industry, the imminent spate of lay-offs within this sector is influenced by extraneous factors that are often beyond the discretion of bank managements.

The real credit for the new found realisation that mass purge of staff under fanciful brand names such as retrenchment, rationalisation, downsizing, right sizing, and restructuring e.t.c. is the panacea for any company or sector undergoing a reform should go to the Federal Government. The various reform programmes of the federal government that I dare not criticise, for fear of being branded unpatriotic, has effectively pointed the way to all other sectors and levels of governments that reforms cannot be effective if people keep their jobs.

The government under the able leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo is beginning to wean Nigerians of all persuasions from the supposedly lazy and idle notion that having a job or a means of livelihood is an inalienable fundamental human right. It is however noteworthy to observe that the reforms of the government in the tax sector is striking the right cord in the heart of the emerging crop of jobless and under-employed Nigerians. The average Nigerian company and individual citizen, due mainly to the mobilisation of relevant government agencies are now better informed of the need to live up to the non-discretionary obligation of paying their taxes as at when due. The current government is optimistic about its ability to raise more taxes in an extremely disabled economy where it is a privilege for citizens to have decent jobs or have credible means to earn a living.

The commentary on the attitude of the government to facilitating an economy that encourages the creation and sustenance of decent livelihood for all Nigerians is meant to provide a background to some of the unconventional labour standards that are beginning to emerge in the banking industry. Some less than ethical employers in the country continue to take immoral advantage of the absence of labour policies that are capable of discouraging employers from creating and implementing discriminatory recruitment standards that have no reference in any part of the globe. It is only in Nigeria that an employer will insist on a first class or second-class upper degrees, gender, age requirements that do not logically align with the specified work experience e.t.c.

What is even more disheartening is that multinational companies that often claim that their operations is governed by global standard have over time perfected the practice of employing different recruitment standards in Nigeria. These companies knowing teeming unemployed and desperate Nigerians are not empowered to defend their rights insist on recruitment standards that they dare not contemplate in their home countries. It will be foolhardy for a citizen to expect that a private business will protect the rights of a conscientious and productive staff to keep his or her job, when policies of the federal government continue to suggest that citizens’ rights count for nothing. It is now public knowledge that the non-negotiable requirement for qualifying for a job interview in the federal civil service is the possession of a second-class upper degree.

It is fast becoming a norm for the society to see a company that avails competent and qualified Nigerians of jobs as a benevolent institution. While one is not underplaying the value that a company adds to the economy by providing jobs, it should be noted that the relationship between an employer and an employee is that of exchange of value and not extension of a privilege through a job offer. An employee is only considered worthy of being offered a job because his skills and experience can add proven value to the operations and bottom-line of the employer.

Against the background of the increasing popularity of unconventional recruitment standards, it is not strange that some institutional players in the banking industry are now beginning to take a cue from the larger environment in which they operate. A development that will qualify as a classical reference is the widely publicised decision of a consolidated bank to dispense with the service of some staff with assumed questionable qualifications.

A single bank that is sure on the way to redefining the values of meritocracy and productivity in the banking industry and the Nigerian economic landscape is Access Bank Plc. This bank as reported in the country’s national dailies recently acquainted Nigerians with its rather peculiar definition of meritocracy and productivity in the workplace. The Bank in exemplification of its distasteful high standard recently mandated all staff from Capital International Bank and Marina International Bank, the banks with which it recently merged, with qualifications from polytechnics and state universities to resign from the bank with immediate effect. Beyond this class of staff, graduates of federal universities in the employ of the consolidated bank without a minimum of second upper degrees were also asked to resign with immediate effect.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive of Access Bank Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, who was confirmed to have addressed staff of Capital Bank and Marina International Bank, hinged the mass sack carried out by Access on the assumed incompatibility of the qualifications of the affected staff with the sacrosanct excellent standard that Access is reputed for. According to him, he assumed before the consummation of the merger that all the merging institutions shared a common standard in relation acceptable minimum qualifications for all staff. Though he did not say so, one can conclude that Mr Aig-Imoukhuede considers qualifications from polytechnics and state universities as sub-standard to qualifications from federal universities.

It is also worth mentioning that graduates of federal universities with class of degrees less than second-class upper are not fit to work in Access Bank. The Chief Executive of Access went further to affirm that his bank would have pegged employment to graduates of only four federal universities in Nigeria if not for the existence of a labour code that stipulates otherwise. This statement beyond doubt proves that the in-human adventure of the management of Access Bank on the labour front is only succeeding because of the palpable lack of protective laws in the country.

I find it extremely difficult to reconcile the recruitment policy of Access Bank with its corporate pay-off that reads “ The Quest for Excellence.” One would have expected an organisation that prides itself as cherishing excellence to give all staff of the merging bank an equal and fair opportunity to prove their mettle or competence. It is important to note that the new management of the United Bank for Africa (U.B.A.) displayed this sense of maturity and fairness when the merger of the former U.B.A. and S.T.B. was consummated. The former management of S.T.B. despite being the dominant partner in the consolidated U.B.A. as against seeking deceitful means of laying- off staff of the old U.B.A., in a widely publicised public statement announced that it will avail all staff twelve months to prove their continued relevance to the newly consolidated bank. It is also instructive to mention that the new management at U.B.A. also bridged the wide gap in the remuneration all the staff in the newly consolidated bank.

The U.B.A. strategy apart from helping to disprove various wild speculations about what to expect from the new owners of U.B.A. also helped to position the institution as one that had a single and unambiguous definition for merit in the work place. The institution has proved that it is committed to providing a level playing ground for all staff on its pay roll to prove their competence. I am very sure that no informed observer will accuse the management of U.B.A. of bias if operational dynamics make it compelling the bank t to undertake a right sizing programme after the twelve months grace period it has given all staff.

The reference to U.B.A. a major player in the industry with even more compelling staff obligations is only to help us appreciate the merit driven and fair manner, in which an institution that is in sincere pursuit of excellence treated a similar challenge that the management of Access Bank made a mess of. The management of Access Bank has beyond doubt positioned the bank as an ostrich institution that is passionate about defending narrow and questionable considerations at the expense of universally accepted and timeless values of merit, fair play and proven productivity. The widely publicised recruitment policy of the consolidated Access Bank also points it out as an institution whose core values are driven by institutional arrogance as against the value of meritocracy.

The recent misadventure of Access Bank on the labour front under the leadership of Aig- Imoukhuede, will no doubt help customers and investors in the entity called Access Bank to understand the genesis of the many image problems that the bank has been contending with in recent times. The Managing Director of the Bank continues to prove that informed investors and depositors in Access Bank cannot go to sleep for as long as he remains in the saddle as Chief Executive. The poor perception of the bank’s chief executive in the industry that is rooted in issues of integrity and the many grave contraventions that the bank has committed under him, accounts for the negative public perception that Access Bank enjoys among various stakeholders in the industry.

The on-going consolidation exercise that should otherwise offer the bank an opportunity to reposition itself competitively in the hearts of its various publics is strangely being explored as a window to further dent the fragile image of a potentially vibrant institution. Concerned stakeholders in the bank are beginning to ask pertinent questions that are desirous of urgent and sincere responses that will not be laced with the arrogance that those at the helms of affairs in the bank are fast becoming synonymous with.

Arguably, the most poignant among the questions begging for answers is why the questionable recruitment policy that Access Bank operated before consolidation should have retroactive effect on staff from Capital Bank and Marina International. Let me state for purpose of argument that it may be possible to rationalise the contentious recruitment policy of Access Bank, if it is implemented as a standard for recruiting new employees. This same standard when used to judge the suitability of staff of Capital Bank and Marina Bank for employment in the assumed new Access Bank smacks of arrogance and serious problem of complex. One would have expected a merit driven organisation to subject all staff of the three merging banks to an empirical test designed to test the knowledge and competence of all those that aspire to be part of the new Access Bank.

Access Bank has also mortgaged its claim to being a socially responsible corporate citizen with the type of image that its publicised recruitment policy will engender in the hearts of various shades of Nigerians. The bank’s unconventional recruitment policy suggests that it does not care about the intended and unintended incalculable damage that its warped value of merit and productivity can cause to the already waning moral values of the society. In a society where desperation as become the order of the day because of limited opportunities for Nigerians to fully express their potentials, one can imagine the reaction of parents and young school leavers to the negative signals that Access Bank is emitting.

The dangerous precedent that Access Bank is setting will justifiably make parents to discourage there children from seeking admission into polytechnics, a development which is not entirely new and state universities that are spread across the country. Essential considerations such as aptitude of an applicant and the comparative advantage of some tertiary institutions to offer certain courses will no longer count for nothing in the choice of course of study and institution. Henceforth the only wise consideration in line with the standard being championed by Access Bank is the desperate pursuit of any imaginable discipline in a federal university and for a discerning under-graduate to ensure he graduates by any means with a degree in the second-class upper category.

Informed observers are also anxiously waiting for the management of Access Bank to issue a press statement urging all graduates of state universities and polytechnics and all those directly and remotely related to them to withdraw their deposits and henceforth desist from transacting any form of business with branches and all institutions associated with the entity called Access Bank. This wise alert which is long over due should also be directed to all Nigerians and their relatives and friends, that had the misfortune of graduating from federal universities with class of degree that was lower than a second class upper.

In all developed societies where citizens are conscious of their rights and willing to defend them, the natural backlash to the incredulous recruitment policy of Access Bank would have been mass closure of accounts in all branches of Access Bank by informed members of the public. I sincerely expect that all relatives and friends of all those that were affected by the mass purge in Access Bank should by now be engrossed in exercising their citizens right of protest by orchestrating interpersonal campaign for people to close their accounts in a bank that revels in standing out in a crowd for the wrong reasons.

Another issue worth reflecting on in the implementation of Access Bank’s recruitment policy is the inconsistent logic of the bank in determining standards through which disengaged staff will be compensated. The bank according to its press statement confirmed that all staff that were affected by the forced resignation order would be compensated according to the compensation standards of their old employers as against the compensation standard of the consolidated Access Bank.

What is strange about this policy is that it gives the erroneous impression that the disengaged staffed were sent packing by their former employers. I am at a loss why the management of Access Bank was averse to using its more robust remuneration package to calculate the sixteen months severance package of staff that were given the boot. Strangely, the same management had the moral conscience to use its high horse recruitment standards to send a crop of experienced and highly qualified professionals into the already overcrowded labour market. I have it on good authority that a sizeable number of the disengaged staff were qualified chartered accountants and bankers. Their only offence for being sacked by a Chief Executive who is a lawyer is that they committed the hara-kiri of attending polytechnics and state universities that are registered under the laws and statutes of Nigeria. I am still seeking rationale explanations that will convince me that a graduate of a federal university with a second class upper degree is better qualified than his counterpart from a state university or polytechnic with additional qualification in accountancy, banking or other relevant disciplines.

I am tempted at this juncture to make reference to the cliché that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. The MD/CEO of Access Bank needs to be told that the balance sheet is not the only measure for assessing the performance and continued viability of a bank. A banking institution unlike some other business cannot thrive in an environment that is devoid of utmost trust and confidence in its operations and its functionaries. In this case, the most visible of all the functionaries in a bank is its Chief Executive, who must deliberately position himself in character and not through mere claims, as a reference when integrity and honour are the subjects of discuss. The antecedents and documented facts about the tenure of Mr Aig-Imoukhuede as Chief Executive of Access Bank do not recommend him as a man who honours his words or values integrity.

Press reports on the purge in Access Bank said the management of the bank summoned the disengaged staff for an interview that was supposed to help determine their suitability for absorption in the newly consolidated bank. What the affected staff of Capital Bank and Marina Bank who came in from across the country, got against their sincere expectation of being interviewed by conscientious professionals was a riot act that they should tender their resignation letter with immediate effect. This deceitful act by my reckoning is irreconcilable with the reputation of a Chief Executive that wants to be perceived as a man of his words.

Nothing best exemplifies the character and high value that Mr Aig-Imoukhuede places on integrity, transperancy and meritocracy better than the list of contraventions committed by him as an individual and Access Bank as a corporate entity. These very grave contraventions that were published in the bank’s 2005 annual reports are the highest among all the financial institutions I am familiar with as an investor in the capital market. After listing the litany of contraventions as published by Access Bank I leave all investors, customers, staff and other stakeholders in the future of this potentially great bank, to make their independent judgments on the values that can be adduced to those at the helms of affairs of this financial institution.

The thirteen contraventions for which the bank paid a total fine of N13 Million (Thirteen million Naira) to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) range from failure of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Deputy Managing Director and a Director to ensure execution of the code of conduct form, non attainment of statutory minimum liquidity ratio of 40% twice in the financial year under review, failure to provide minimum information required in credit print-outs.

Also prominent among the list of contraventions are rendition of inaccurate returns to the regulatory authorities through the abuse of the use commercial papers and bankers acceptance, failure to service the facility granted to the company of a non-executive director, lending to some customers amounts that exceeded the bank’s single obligor limit of N827.9 Million and booking commercial papers and bankers acceptances up to 255% of shareholders funds. Some other published indictments on the list were non disclosure of AISEC as one of its subsidiaries and non report of some director related facilities, granting facility to some director related companies without adequate securities, acquiring real estate without the approval of the C.B.N., allowing fixed assets acquisition to exceed shareholders funds and closure of branches without CBN approval.

OMO’BA OLUMIDE IDOWU, is a Lagos based Poet, Entrepreneur and Public Analyst. Responses to this article can be sent to mideidowu@yahoo.com.