Easter Reminds Us of Sacrifice—So Why Are Nigerian Companies Still Exploiting Their Workers?

Picture a Lagos banking hall on a Monday morning. Staff arrive in matching corporate attire, log into the same systems, and serve the same customers. Yet beneath that uniform surface, two entirely different worlds exist.

Core staff earn full salaries, receive pensions, and access health insurance. Contract staff, however, do the same work for significantly less pay, with no benefits and no guarantee that their contract will be renewed next quarter.

This is not an isolated scenario. It is, in fact, the standard operating model across Nigeria’s banking, telecommunications, oil and gas, and aviation sectors. Furthermore, recent events in 2026 have made the stakes even clearer.

In March 2026, hundreds of contract workers described as non-core staff at First Bank were reportedly terminated during a major restructuring exercise, with the bank offering no public statement. Meanwhile, across Q1 2026, the CBN’s bank recapitalisation deadline drove mergers that consistently led to job losses, with contract workers absorbing the first and heaviest impact.

So when companies talk about people-centred sustainability, we must ask: which people, exactly?

A System Built to Scale, Not to Protect

Contract staffing itself is not inherently wrong. Businesses face real pressures, and flexibility is often essential for survival. Nigeria’s economy is volatile, and companies do require scalable workforce structures.

Indeed, the model emerged partly out of necessity. The collapse of the oil boom and subsequent structural adjustment programmes led to mass retrenchment, pushing many enterprises toward casualisation as a cost-cutting measure simply to remain viable.

Today, however, the model has expanded far beyond its original intent. A report cited by CSR Reporters reveals that cost reduction remains the primary driver, with 61.21 percent of firms in the banking sector citing it as their main reason for casualisation. Third-party HR vendors and outsourcing firms sit between workers and the companies that deploy them, creating a convenient accountability gap.

Consequently, when things go wrong for a contract worker, responsibility bounces between two entities and, too often, lands nowhere.

The CSR Contradiction Companies Ignore

Here is where responsible business must be held to account. Nigeria’s largest companies routinely publish sustainability reports, declare commitments to decent work, and profile their social impact programmes. Nevertheless, contract workers continue joining their ranks because unemployment remains desperately high, making it better to accept exploitative terms than to have no income at all.

Studies highlighted by CSR Reporters show that contract staff make up approximately 65 percent of the banking sector’s workforce. This is based on a 2023 report by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. Moreover, ASSBIFI, the banking workers’ union, confirmed that over 100 employees received termination letters on January 1, 2026, at one institution alone.

These workers perform core functions daily. Still, they are excluded from profit-sharing, denied paid leave, and routinely disconnected from any career development pathway.

The CSR contradiction is direct: a company cannot credibly claim social impact while outsourcing worker welfare entirely to a third party. Responsibility cannot stop at the payroll structure.

An ESG Blind Spot with Real Consequences

The “S” in ESG stands for Social. Yet contract staffing remains one of the most overlooked social risks in Nigeria’s corporate governance conversations. Labour practices, human capital development, and workplace equity are all central ESG indicators. Furthermore, each of these is compromised by the current model.

Beyond the moral dimension, there are practical consequences. A report cited by CSR Reporters reveals that casualisation negatively affects worker commitment, with many employees reporting stress and anxiety tied to employment uncertainty. Additionally, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation has warned that excessive reliance on casual workers increases fraud and security vulnerabilities within the banking industry.

For companies with international investors or cross-border partners, the risk escalates further. Annual inflation in Nigeria has recently hovered around 25 percent, meaning that stagnant contract wages represent real and worsening declines in purchasing power. An employee earning far below the market average while facing rising costs is not simply underpaid. That worker is being actively pushed backward. Investors increasingly scrutinise supply chain and workforce practices.

Therefore, companies that ignore this blind spot do so at reputational and financial risk.

The Nigerian Gap That Enables It All

Why does the system persist? The answer is uncomfortable but honest. Unemployment in Nigeria remains elevated at roughly 30 to 35 percent on a broad measure, which gives workers virtually no bargaining power. As a result, contract employees often fear speaking up, joining unions, or reporting violations.

Additionally, enforcement of labour protections remains weak. Nigeria’s Labour Act technically requires that anyone engaged on a casual basis must be regularised after three months. Yet, as studies tracked by CSR Reporters show, some employees have remained on irregular contracts for up to nine years while employers deliberately re-label casualisation as contract staffing to avoid regulatory scrutiny. The law exists. Enforcement, however, is another matter entirely.

What Responsible Companies Should Do Now

Criticism without direction is incomplete. So, what does responsible contract staffing actually look like in the Nigerian context?

First, companies should ensure wage parity for equivalent roles, regardless of employment category. Second, all workers deployed on company premises should access basic health coverage. Third, contract terms must be transparent, with clear renewal timelines and defined pathways toward permanent conversion. Fourth, training and development programmes should include contract staff rather than reserving growth opportunities exclusively for core employees.

Notably, the Nigerian Army recently demonstrated that change is possible. The Chief of Army Staff approved the absorption of long-serving contract staff into permanent positions within military and command schools, following structured advocacy and constructive dialogue. If that shift is achievable within a military institution, it is certainly achievable within a commercial bank or telecoms firm.

These are not acts of generosity. They are baseline responsibilities.

The Question That Defines Sustainability

Contract staffing is not disappearing from Nigeria’s economy. The real question, therefore, is not whether companies use it. The question is whether they are willing to be accountable for the people behind those contracts.

Because sustainability is not only about the environment companies protect. It is equally about the people they choose to protect within their own systems. Until that accountability becomes standard practice, every glossy CSR report published by a company that employs thousands of invisible contract workers remains, at best, incomplete.