LIFE DURING AND AFTER BANKING

By its nature, Banking Job exposes bankers and bank workers to a lot of financial information. In the same vein, the job requires the staff of bank (being public attendants) to look good at all time. Even though many bankers complain of their take-home, one of the good paying jobs one could find around is still Banking Job. Besides, because it is a job that strives on integrity and trust, the credit rating given to Bankers in some quarters are very high. They are generally considered to be credit worthy. The implication of the above is that Bankers could easily use what they ‘want’ to use today and pay later. The earlier Bankers were deemed to be conservative. The ethics of the profession made them to be frugal in their spending. Because he was supposed to be a financial adviser to people who requires his services, the banker of yesteryears cultivated a very strict personal financial management principle. No wonder he earned himself the description ‘bankers are stingy’

Sequel to modernization, today bankers have thrown ethics into the dust bin. Today, Banks MD’s move around in their private jets, even when the treasures he strives on, is the depositors’ Funds. Those who are even joining the bank at entry level are already pledging the income they have not earned against facilities, assets and liabilities taking today. An average Nigerian Banker lives above his means, a life of no savings for the raining day and a life full of portfolio of debts. Bankers, having taken all the loans they could take from their employer even go to other Banks and take more loans, without even considering the ability to pay back. You now see Cheques drawn on staff account being returned on the ground of insufficient fund. If the dishonored cheque (dud cheque) Act of 1977 should be evoked against Nigerian Bankers, many of us would be cooling off behind the bar by now. Our livelihood now depends on credit card with a very high default rate. Many of us, if our employer asks us to go today, we have no ‘run rate’ that could keep us for one week. Our cheques which are supposed to be as good as Bank drafts are now been relegated to the background by our business partners. Why should this be? It is simply because of the way we manage our finance while in paid employment. The objective of my write-up is to identify the possible punctures in our approach to life as bankers and offer possible advise which could help us while out of the banking Job. Please get me right, I am not absorbing my self from the issue at stake for I am not a saint. My thought is that at the conclusion time, everyone, including me would have to ponder and have a rethink on certain things that requires improvement in our approach to life.