Business
Banks’ Reorganisation: Casual Workers Demand Regularisation
Casual or “contract” workers with the five banks whose managements we recently sacked by the CBN have appealed to the new managements to regularize their employment status by converting then from contract to regular staff.
Staffers from the affected banks say at least one executive director in each of those banks own the firm which engaged them on contract terms and pay them for less then what the regular staff get, a salary they describe as “a salve wage”.
A substantial percentage of the bankers noted that they were unnecessarily exposed to huge cash against low pay. In their opinion, the managements deliberately keep their employment status as such for their selfish benefits.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of them who work for a first – generation bank said, “The contract staff are allowed to work everywhere like regular staff. There is no control.
We handle big transactions daily that some one of our standing is not supposed to have access to.”
The Tide learnt that some of the contract staff work at the treasury as well as carry out some other sensitive duties in these banks. They are equally allowed to transact business worth billions of naira in some instances.
We also learnt that the contract staff phenomenon is prominent with Oceanic Bank, Union Bank, and Intercontinental bank.
Others with huge percentage of contract staff are United Bank for Africa, Skye Bank and Access Bank. Many of these contract staff are as qualified or better qualified than their regular counterparts yet the banks refused to regularise their employment status, preferring to exploit them. Skye bank, it was discovered that it is notorious for this practice. Some of its contract staff have spent six or more years in one position with no hope of promotion or conversion. They are regularly looked for when a regular position needed to be filled, even when they are qualified for the post. A contract worker with B.Sc degree, who had spent over six years in Skye Bank, is paid less than N1 million per annum while the start off package for an entry level employee is about N3 million.
The source said he had made several attempts to be converted to a regular staff or worker to no avail.
“We are only here to fill the gap for some candidates the executive directors are bringing,” stated the contract staff. “At least, I know that one of the executive directors that was sacked owned the recruiting firm that recruited me,” another casual worker said. Others contented that the situation was almost similar in all the banks in the industry where the managing director or one of the directors owns the recruiting firm that overseees their employment.
They complained that their appointments get terminated once the directors bring their own people, who they have retained the openings for, as regulars.
The contract staff also alleged that the remuneration is low and that is why they prefer to keep most staff on the contract list. A source at the treasury of one of these banks said.
They once made the same mistake with one dispatch rider who falsified an account to deceive CBN officials and immediately went to cash the money as soon as it was paid into his account and disappeared. The man has not been found since then”.
They appealed for a review of their employment with the banks in accordance with the CBN stand on contract staff in banks.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
