At LEAST 60 newly recruited staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have raised alarm over prolonged delays in their deployment and onboarding, nearly 28 months after receiving formal employment offers from the apex bank.
The affected individuals, who were issued offer letters in August 2023, said they have remained in limbo since accepting the appointments and resigning from their previous jobs as instructed by the bank.
News Point Nigeria reports that speaking on behalf of the group on Monday, one of the recruits, Emmanuel Linus Dabo, said the CBN’s offer of employment was followed by clear directives from the bank’s Human Resources Department, including the submission of acceptance letters and proof of resignation from former workplaces where applicable.
“We all tendered resignation letters to our former employers at that time to enable us to proceed with the CBN process,” Dabo told journalists.
According to him, the recruitment process began in April 2023 when applicants submitted their résumés to the CBN headquarters. This was followed by invitations for interviews and aptitude tests sent via email by the bank’s Human Resources Department.
He explained that shortlisted candidates also underwent medical examinations at the CBN medical clinic, where individual access codes were issued before hospital screening.
“After the interview, medicals, and aptitude tests, successful applicants were contacted by the HR manager to come to the CBN headquarters in Abuja to collect their offer letters. We filled and returned the acceptance letters without delay,” he said.
Dabo added that there were subsequent email communications from the Human Resources office requesting the submission of credentials for online documentation, including acknowledged resignation letters from former employers.
However, after completing all requirements, the recruits said communication from the bank abruptly stopped.
“After a long time, there was no further communication from the bank. Many of us became jobless, but we remained hopeful that deployment would happen. We assumed the transition in leadership at the apex bank may have affected the process,” Dabo explained.
Documents sighted by our correspondent indicate that the employment offers, allegedly issued by the CBN’s Human Resources Department, were provisional appointments subject to a one-year probationary period, after which confirmation would follow based on satisfactory performance.
The group also provided copies of acknowledged reminder letters addressed to the CBN Governor, dated September 2023, November 2024, and January 2025. According to them, none of the letters received a response from the bank’s management.
As economic hardship deepens across the country, the recruits say the prolonged delay has taken a severe toll on their finances and personal lives.
They appealed directly to the CBN Governor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and other relevant stakeholders to urgently intervene and resolve their predicament.
“As I’m talking to you, many of our colleagues are battling depression. We recently contributed ₦3,000 each to support some of them who are in the hospital,” Dabo said.
“Many of us can no longer pay our rent or settle basic bills. Some have withdrawn their children from school because they simply can’t cope anymore. We don’t even know how to explain this situation to our families.”
He added that some of the affected recruits studied abroad and returned to Nigeria specifically to contribute their expertise to national development, only to be left stranded.
“Some of us came back home with hope and patriotism. We are pleading with the authorities to look into this matter urgently. The situation is worsening by the day,” he said.
As of the time of filing this report, the Central Bank of Nigeria had not issued an official response to the complaints.