Mass Resignation Of Key IT Staff Hit Banks, Face Technical Problems
TECHDIGEST – They are moving in large numbers outside the country. We are experiencing a pull of people out of the industry to outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period. So succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these guys are the next generation of people. That is also slowing down activity.”
That was the president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Ken Opara, some weeks ago at an event.
Indeed, the impact of mass resignations of key Information Technology (IT) talents in Nigeria is beginning to tell on many commercial banks, as unresolved technical problems have started affecting service delivery.
Just recently, a lot of bank customers took to social media to express their frustration, and wondering what is wrong with Nigerian banks.
“Something looks fishy; technical problems; unwarranted charges everywhere. This shows a lot of incompetencies, loop holes, truth and trust in the system,” one of them @jerryonyema tweeted.
Another user, Abdulkahi Turawa said “I’ve been wondering why some banks/fintech apps don’t do transactions with some other banks/fintech apps. Is it a technical problem or usual Nigerian ‘schadenfreude’?”
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According to yet another Twitter user with the handle, @_Whogos nothing is wrong rather, all banks in Nigeria lost their key IT staff to ‘japa’ (Canada, UK and other developed countries).
“Nigerians are joking with the aftermath of japa. A top Nigerian bank Is having technical issues for over 30 hours no team to fix it. Most of their tech guys have ‘japa.’
“Not only key staff. I was a relationship manager as at March this year in one of the banks in Nigeria. Currently I’m a credit analyst in the second biggest bank In Canada. My branch manager in Nigeria just arrived Canada three days ago. 12 Aug.”
Specifically, findings reveal that the trend has worsened in August and September due to mass resignations as foreign schools resume academic activities in September 2022 and many of them are traveling with student visa.
Nigeria is currently ravaged by a number of socio-economic issues, some of which include insecurity, high cost of goods and services, and unemployment amongst others.
As Nigeria’s tech ecosystem grows, and banks going more digital, its talent shortage especially software engineers is becoming more obvious, such that talent is now being sought from outside Africa to build products used in the country.
This stakeholders believe is a disincentive to the cashless banking initiative, and obstructing seamless operation of electronic and mobile banking systems where every banking transaction is expected to be digitized.
This worry was also expressed by Abubakar Suleiman, chief executive officer of Sterling Bank Plc on April 15, 2022 at the end of a meeting of bank CEOs.
