The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that it spent N306.63bn to offset staff expenses and the emoluments of former employees it asked to take an early exit option from the bank in 2024.

This amount represents an increase of over 700 per cent from the N37.7bn spent in 2023. It also indicated that a total of N191.95bn was spent on staff allowances, while N55.62bn was incurred as wages and salaries for its employees during the year.

The amount was listed as personnel expenses in the newly released 2024 financial statement of the apex bank and analysed by our correspondent on Tuesday.

Recall that last year, the apex bank said over 1,000 employees voluntarily opted to resign from the bank under its bank’s “Early Exit Programme.”

This followed an earlier wave of shake-ups at the CBN, where no fewer than 317 staff were sacked and about 1,500 others affected by an internal restructuring exercise spearheaded by the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso.

It said a severance package worth over N50bn was said to have been allocated as the payoff for the exercise.

The management described the EEP as a voluntary programme offering eligible employees an incentive to exit the CBN early, “while providing employees seeking other career options a great opportunity for early exit.”

The EEP stated that financial incentives for senior supervisors to deputy managers shall be for the remaining period in service, up to a maximum of 60 months of the current grade’s gross annual emoluments.

However, in its financial statement, the apex bank disclosed that it spent N306.63bn on staff-related expenses. While it did not provide a detailed breakdown of the expenditure, it noted that the figure includes payments made to employees who opted for the early exit scheme during the year.

The financial report did not disclose the exact number of affected employees and payments made to earlier sacked staff.

It also didn’t reveal the numerical strength of its workforce. The cost represents over 50 per cent of the bank’s operating expenses for the year and 106.1 per cent or N313.12bn higher than N295.37bn recorded as personnel cost in 2023.

A breakdown showed that staff allowances also rose to N191.9bn from N168.6bn, reflecting a sustained upward trend in recurrent spending. Defined benefit plan expenses jumped by 49 per cent to N36.5bn, while wages and salaries grew modestly to N55.6bn from N47bn.

Similarly, pension contributions under the Defined Contribution Plan saw a slight uptick, moving from N17.3bn to N17.7bn, underscoring the steady rise in the bank compensation burden.

Furthermore, the bank incurred N152.74bn as administrative expenses, N50bn for the banking sector resolution sinking funds, N8.67bn as intervention activities expenses, N53.95bn, and as cost of sales.

Other operating costs include N21.53bn for repairs and maintenance, N1.75bn as bank charges, N7.14bn for professional fees, N2.23bn for directors’ related expenses, N1.01bn as Audit fees, N392m as donations, and N12.69bn for OTC FX futures transactions fee expenses.

N70m was spent on technical assistance expenses, and N493m as loss on sale of property, plant, and equipment.