KCB Loses 240 Employees in 6 Months, CEO Warns Of Lesser Jobs In The Sector

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group recorded a loss of approximately 240 employees in six months in what the CEO has linked to banks’ increased investment in digital channels and agencies.

The Bank’s CEO, Joshua Oigara warned that there will be lesser jobs in the sector and a new set of jobs would be created elsewhere through linkages with the banking sector.

“For efficiency, we will see less and less jobs in the industry. In reality, as we build much more investments in our digital channels and agencies, we will see fewer jobs in our establishments.

“The future of jobs in the banks is actually to create jobs in different sectors and businesses by working with entrepreneurs, we have to reorganize and reimagine job creation in the sector by investing in small businesses,” Mr Oigara told the Business Daily in an interview.

The firm’s headcount fell from the 6,220 it closed 2018 with to the 5,980 employees recorded at the close of June 2019.

Job cuts in the banking sector have become an inevitable case in the country reflecting the continued focus on digital products at the expense of expensive branch network.

Additionally, many Kenyans nowadays prefer digital banking solutions to the conventional bank system mainly characterized by long queues.

KCB’s average transactions per teller per day decreased by 15 percent to 64.4 in the half-year period to June compared with 75.4 in the previous half-year.

Recently, Stanbic Bank announced a redundancy targeting an estimated 200 staff in what was cited as ‘digitization’, the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) similarly announced that its employees risk losing their jobs two years into the proposed merger with KCB Group.

In 2018, Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK), Equity Group, Housing Finance (HF), KCB Group, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank posted a 1,592 reduction in their combined headcount.

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