ESG: Banking on the Sweat of Casual Labour

SOStainabilityWeekly

Edited by Oke Epia, E-mail: sostainability01@gmail.com  | WhatsApp: +234 8034000706

Washing and Hushing

Last week, the conscience of Nigeria’s banking and financial services sector was scoured by a shrill call to end modern-day slavery. The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurances and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) demanded an immediate end to the casualisation and outsourcing of jobs. Acting National President of the apex union of workers in the sector, Mr. Fanimokun Adesina, used the 2026 World Day for Decent Work to restate what Nigeria already knows but shamelessly glosses over.

“Today in the banks, insurance and financial institutions, we have witnessed significant displacement of permanent decent work with casual, contract employees, and third-party outsourcing,” he said, adding: “Graduates with commanding degrees and professional qualifications are employed as contract and casual staff with no pension, no health cover, no job security, no collective bargaining rights, and sometimes the worker is compelled to sign-off his freedom of association entitlement before or during employment. This is not only indecent work, but modern-day slavery.”

Nigeria’s banking sector is one of the most boisterous and prosperous on the continent. The banks love to showcase their ESG credentials and trumpet every laurel from national and global assessments. However, the demand by ASSBIFI exposes the dirty underbelly of institutions that presumably thrive on trust and rectitude. Hopefully, relevant regulatory authorities, especially the federal ministry of labour and employment, are awakened to do something about this unwholesome practice quickly. This page will delve more into this in subsequent editions.