13 commercial banks paid N163.58 billion as salaries in Q1

Thirteen listed commercial banks paid a sum of N163.58 billion as personnel expenses in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 14% when compared to the N143.48 billion paid to their staff in the corresponding period of 2021.

This is according to data culled from the financial reports of the listed banks on the NGX by Nairalytics – the research arm of Nairametrics.

The banks under consideration were Access, FCMB, Fidelity, First Bank, GT Bank, Jaiz Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling, UBA, Union, Unity, Wema, and Zenith Bank.

The thirteen banks combined had paid N609.2 billion as personnel expenses in the 2021 full year, from which N556.54 billion was paid as wages and salaries, while the remaining were used for other add-ons like defined benefit obligation, contributions to defined contribution plans amongst others.

The Nigerian financial sector is a highly competitive space with big players to the tune of aggregate asset size of over N60 trillion as of March 2022. whilst they compete for market share, and profitability, they also compete for sustainable talent advantage by attracting the best available skillsets in alignment with the company’s goal.

Banks also develop their current employees through reskilling and upskilling programs, which might come with increased remuneration. Employee compensation has long been linked to employee productivity, which in turn reflects on the performance of the company.

The banks do not report their staff strength in their unaudited financial statement, however, based on the audited reports of the banks, they have a total staff strength of over 50,900 as of December 2021, Nairametrics reports.