Posted by Doyin Adebusuyi, Ilorin on
As bank robberies become rampant across the country, community banks have been advised to put in place good welfare packages for their staff in order to discourage fraud and other related crimes.
As bank robberies become rampant across the country, community banks have been advised to put in place good welfare packages for their staff in order to discourage fraud and other related crimes.
The Branch Manager of Nigeria Insurance Company in Kwara State, Mrs. Idiat Abdulkareem, gave the advice in Ilorin on Wednesday at the opening of a two-day workshop organised by the National Association of Community Banks, Kwara State chapter, for staff of community banks.
She also urged managements of banks to take up adequate insurance cover for their staff and operations in order to provide comfort and compensation for any loss.
According to Abdulkareem, such welfare package could either be in form of staff retirement benefits and insurance cover.
She added, 'When the staff are aware that their lives are secured and when they retire from service, they would also have a good package. This will encourage them to work devotedly and also remain loyal to the banks."
Stressing the need for banks to be more security conscious, she said staff should also be trained on how to prevent fraud.
She argued that since community banks were established mainly to finance small or medium scale industries as well as providing financial assistance to their customers, banks should extend insurance covers to such customers.
She said this became necessary in order to provide adequate cover for properties for which customers obtained loans from the banks.
'With this, the banks are sure of recovering their loans and also guarantee safety of properties for which the loans are obtained," she said.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of NACOBS, Mr. Daniel Abegunde, called on government to provide more employment in order to reduce the increasing rate of bank robberies in the country.
Abegunde, who put the total number of community banks in the state at 20, pleaded with the state government to implement its poverty alleviation programmes through the community banks.
The Punch, Thursday, June 09, 2005