They spoke in separate interviews with SaharaReporters on Monday.
Some Nigerians, who experienced temporary layoff and permanent job losses as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak and its impact on the economy, are counting their losses, calling on government to intervene on their behalf.
They spoke in separate interviews with SaharaReporters on Monday.
A worker in an insurance company, who identified herself only as Abeni, was one of those affected by the job loss.
Abeni, who doesn’t want to reveal the name of her ex-employer, said the company decided to dismiss some workers due to the financial impact of the Coronavirus.
“’E don happen! We are sorry to inform you that due to COVID-19 pandemic which is quite unfortunate….’ In a nutshell, I lost my job,” she said.
Another member of staff of an insurance company, who simply gave his name as Femi, said his company ordered some of them to proceed on compulsory leave without pay.
“In the email sent to us, they said because of the pandemic, some workers have to leave. We were sent on compulsory leave without pay.
“As it stands, there is no hope of returning to work, the probability is 50/50,” he said.
SaharaReporters gathered that some media organisations have introduced a deduction in staff salary to stay afloat.
A journalist with one of the national newspapers in Nigeria revealed that the company introduced a slash in salary for those, who decided to continue working while others, who could not take the salary deduction were asked to leave.
Similarly, a top management staff in another online media outfit said the company’s revenue had dropped because of the global economic effect of the pandemic.
She said that while revenue had hugely dropped, the company couldn’t afford to keep running without a cut in expenditure.
“Advertisers are currently not coming because of the pandemic and Google Adsense has dropped payment for ads from dollars to cent.
“We can’t afford to keep running, we can’t pay full salaries and also can’t employ new reporters,” she said.
Experts predict that the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country would lead to more job losses.
Recall that the International Labour Congress had predicted that almost 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
Similarly, a study by the African Union shows that 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa as the economy of the continent shrinks.
Though the Central Bank of Nigeria had ordered that banks should halt their plans to sack their staff, the fate of millions of others hangs in the balance as more companies continue to lay off workers to shed financial weight.