Nigeria’s largest tier-one banks— Zenith Bank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc (FirstHoldco), Access Holdings Plc, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO)—collectively spent a staggering N119.92 billion on outsourcing in the 2024 financial year, marking a sharp 35 per cent surge from N88.84 billion recorded in 2023.
Outsourcing, though widely defended by institutions as a strategy for operational efficiency, cost reduction and risk management, is increasingly perceived as a euphemism for evading core labour responsibilities.
Through third-party service providers, banks offload critical frontline roles—ranging from customer service and sales to account management—while circumventing obligations such as pensions, health insurance, and equitable pay.
A 2023 report by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) estimates that contract staff now constitute roughly 65 per cent of the entire workforce in the banking sector. Many of these employees are the public face of banks yet remain invisible within internal structures—underpaid, under-recognised, and underserved.
“I earn N100,000 monthly while my colleagues, who sit beside me doing the exact same job, earn over N250,000,” lamented a contract employee at one of the banks who didn’t want his name mentioned for fear of the repercussions. “Despite meeting targets and resolving customer issues, I’m left out of basic benefits and job security,” the graduate of Banking and Finance lamented.
The Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), in a 2022 study, revealed that banks save as much as 40 per cent on labour costs through outsourcing, a cost-efficiency often achieved at the expense of employee welfare. Beyond inadequate wages, outsourced workers grapple with job insecurity, absence of career progression, exclusion from training, and limited representation.
“They are expendable in the eyes of management,” said a human resource consultant to one of the banks who requested anonymity. “There’s no pathway for growth, no recognition, no inclusion. They are outsiders within.” While Nigeria’s labour laws are theoretically inclusive of all employees, enforcement remains inconsistent and toothless.
The Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), Mr. Shola Aboderin, lamented the government’s inaction. “Despite a sectoral framework agreed under the former Labour Minister, implementation is practically non-existent,” he said.
“Our request for dialogue with the current minister has been ignored since May,” he added. With rising inflation, skyrocketing living costs, and eroding purchasing power, the precariousness of outsourced bank staff has become a potent symbol of deepening inequality in Nigeria’s formal economy.
