Ecobank in row with employees over the hiring of expatriates

Money Markets

Ecobank branch in Nairobi. The bank has been accused of excessive hiring of expatriates. PHOTO | FILE 

By GEORGE NGIGI, gngigi@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Ecobank employees accuse the lender of excessive hiring of expatriates in positions where there are thousands of qualified Kenyans.
• Kenya’s immigration rules allow the hiring of expatriates only in positions where local expertise is not available.
• The expatriates have two years to train a Kenyan apprentice who eventually takes over the job.

A bruising war has broken out between Ecobank Kenya and its employees over alleged excessive hiring of expatriates in positions where there are thousands of qualified Kenyans.

The employees, through the Banking Insurance and Financing Union (Bifu), accuse the pan-African lender of failing to honour a collective bargaining agreement signed between the union and Kenya Bankers Association, saying it had reported the bank to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva for bad labour relations.

“We are taking them to court because they have refused to pay as per the scale from the collective banking agreement yet employees are paying agency fees to the union,” said Tom Odera, the chief executive of the union.

Ecobank, however, dismissed the union’s claims, insisting that it was paying its staff in line with the agreement and is not aware of the alleged forwarding of the matter to the ILO.

Ehouman Kassi, the Ecobank Kenya chief executive, defended the bank’s labour relations record, saying it had introduced a performance-based bonus programme that enables it to reward performing staff even as it struggled to rise from its loss position.

The union had also written to the immigration department and the bank, seeking justification for the appointment of foreigners and the status of their work permits.

Ecobank has eight expatriates in its executive suite, up from two three years ago.

Mr Kassi, who replaced Nigerian Tony Okpanachi, three years ago is Ivorian and it is under his leadership that the number of expatriates is said to have more than trebled.

Head of technology and operations, Didier Koffi, shares nationality with the managing director while procurement is headed by Ivan Asiimwe from Rwanda.

Briton, Gloria Byamugisha, is the head of human resources and also serves as regional head while Ugandan Nuhu Kanyike is in charge of cards.

Four Nigerians: Kingsley Onyia, Abubakar Yusuf, Olanike Kolawole and Steven Amangbo are head of tax, credit administration, domestic banking and regional head of treasury.

Two others Alto Sandie and Eric Koffie hold group positions in card business and sit at Ecobank Towers in Nairobi — the group headquarters for cards business.

Ecobank said that at 13, the appointments were a small fraction of a total staff population of 448 and that the expatriates were necessary to infuse the group culture in the Kenyan operation.

“When we set up a new business we want to drive the culture of the institution into that business so we usually bring in some senior staff who have been in the business for like 10-15 years to hand-hold the others and help them over a couple of years,” said Mr Kassi, adding that 16 Kenyans are working in similar positions in other Ecobank stations across the continent.

Kenya’s immigration rules allow the hiring of expatriates only in positions where local expertise is not available. The expatriates have two years to train a Kenyan apprentice who eventually takes over the job. Kenya issues non-renewable two-year work permits to foreigners.