CBN urges banks to support industries to avert job losses

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has advised Nigerian banks to support the media and aviation sectors through loan disbursements.

This is in view of the lingering Coronavirus pandemic which has wrought major economic havoc across different sectors, leading to revenue declines and multiple job losses.

In a series of tweets posted on Twitter handle, it was disclosed that Emefiele asked the banks to help avert the spate of job losses already being recorded amongst journalists and aviation workers.

The media and aviation sectors are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. An earlier report by Nairametrics uncovered how most print media organisations have had to slash salaries by 50% whilst laying off many staff, even as the current pandemic-induced economic climate continues to make it harder to operate.

As you may well know, the media industry mostly relies on advertising revenue to thrive. However, inasmuch as advertising is critical for most companies and organisations, they tend to drastically cut down on their advertising budgets during a recession. Unfortunately, Nigeria is in a recession, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, Nigeria's Air Peace announced that it had sacked about 70 of its pilots and reduced staff salaries by as much as 40%. The sad decision was, of course, taken to protect the company against the adverse effects of COVID-19. In a similar development, the management of Bristow Helicopters Limited also announced the sack of about 100 pilots and engineers. Bristow's announcement came barely 24 hours after Air Peace's announcement.

Bristow Helicopters, which provides auxiliary services to the oil and gas industry, also blamed COVID-19 for the decision to lay off the pilots. For more than two months, local and international flights were suspended, as planes were grounded in a bid to curtail the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.