By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday said it will recruit about 1,000 more staff to its workforce in Africa in the next few years, according to a Reuters report.
The report said the proposed 1,000 staff to be hired by the lender is an increase of more than 10 percent.
According to the report, Diana Layfield, chief executive officer for Africa, did not disclose specifically where the extra staff would go, but said Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana are three (3) most attractive markets.
“Nigeria has to be close to the top of everybody’s list (for expansion) … it has scale, growth and real dynamism,” Layfield said.
“Our opportunity in Africa is constrained by the ability to invest at pace, and that’s not just a financial constraint but also a management capacity. So the real challenge is prioritisation,” Reuters quoted Standard Chartered CEO at a briefing on Africa by the bank.
The bank has about 8,100 staff in Africa and has a significant presence in 15 countries there. It said after a decade of expansion that took it to 89,000 staff globally, the lender said it has stopped hiring in the last two (2) years after suffering an embarrassing fine for breaching U.S. sanctions, big losses in South Korea and a slowdown in its investment bank.
