CBN clears air on exit offer, denies bias against northerners

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has clarified that its 2024 Early Exit Package (EEP) was not designed to marginalize or destabilize staff from Northern Nigeria, but was a voluntary initiative aimed at decongesting its overcrowded headquarters in Abuja.

The bank’s Deputy Governor for Economic Policy, Muhammad Abdullahi, made the clarification on Wednesday during a plenary session on Governance and Economy at a two-day interactive forum organized by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Kaduna.

Abdullahi explained that the CBN headquarters had become dangerously overcrowded, to the point that emergency exits and limited spaces were converted into offices, raising safety concerns flagged by the building’s insurers.

“The situation was unhealthy and unsustainable. The insurance company expressed serious concerns about the security and safety of the building due to the congestion,” he said.

He added that the bank decided to offer a voluntary exit package to interested employees as part of efforts to reduce the overcrowding, while encouraging relocation to other offices in Lagos, Kaduna, and other cities.

“Some staff who moved to Lagos and Kaduna are now so pleased with the new arrangement that they’ve expressed no desire to return to Abuja,” Abdullahi noted.

He emphasized that the EEP was neither new nor discriminatory, pointing out that the bank has implemented similar exit strategies over the past 20 years whenever the senior management structure became bloated.

“When the need arises, the governor sets up a committee of staff members to develop an offer, but it’s always voluntary — no one is forced to leave,” he stated.

Abdullahi also revealed that some beneficiaries of the package have successfully ventured into private enterprises, including establishing microfinance banks.

He concluded by urging the public not to politicize the internal restructuring of the CBN, stressing that it was driven by operational needs, not ethnic or regional considerations.