• The Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe, said some of their staff may be sacked.

• has mentioned that the bank would be carrying out mass retrenchment of up to seventy-five per cent of their staff.

• The remaining staff would face a pay cut, including himself.

According to him, 75% of their staff strength is no longer needed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in the ongoing lockdown.

Mr Herbert said this in a video call meeting with staff of the bank. In the video, the MD indicated his regret.

The video must have been recorded by a staff of the back and it was posted on Twitter.

Wigwe while speaking, noted that most of the staff that would b affected are outsourced and those offering “non-essential services”.

He said: “We probably don’t need as many security men as required, even to the fact that we are not gonna have all our branches open between now and December.

“We don’t need all the tea girls. We don’t need all the cleaners. We don’t need all the tellers etcetera, etcetera.”

He continued: “So that number of staff which represent 75% of our staff strength, I think, is the one we basically need to speak with their employers with a view to getting them to rationalize to the level that we think will be necessary to basically sustain a mean but actually a customer service oriented institution.

He went on, “The second has to do with our professional cost. Now that one is very tricky and it is tricky because I do understand and appreciate that it is going to bring its own pain to staff.

“We basically have to make the adjustment the same way it sounded when we spoke ten days ago with respect to basically cutting down cost, ” he added.

Furthermore, he stated that he would be the one at the receiving end of the pay cut as he would take the largest pay cut in the bank.

He said: “I will be the first to take the hit and I’m gonna take the largest pay cut, which would be as much as 40 percent.

“The rest we would have to cascade right through the institution. Everybody may have to make some adjustments of some sort.”

According to Wigwe, the said measures are intended to keep the bank in business in the face of the economic realities of COVID-19.

Watch Wigwe talk in the video below.