Lamin Manjang, the former Vice Chairman, of Africa of Standard Chartered Bank has been flown into the country to drive a hard and unfair bargain down the throats of Standard Chartered Bank Sierra Leone staff some of whom he worked with as colleagues when he served as CEO of the Bank.
Manjang joined Standard Chartered Group in 1999. He has over the past 20 years in the Bank, becoming CEO for Kenya and East Africa and CEO in Oman, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Sometime last week the Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria held a farewell dinner party for his retirement from the Group.
It could be recalled that the Bank declared the sale of its Sierra Leone operations to Access Bank Plc. The Sierra Leonean staff have been asking for terminal benefits but the Bank has been promising to get back to them without doing anything serious to address their concerns. It is understood that the Bank of Sierra Leone the main regulator body of Banks in the country has given the first approval for the sale to be conducted.
51 concerned staff have now engaged the services of the law firm of OJP Legal and Marrah & Associates. From the papers we have seen, the High Court of Sierra Leone, presided over by the Honorable Justice Bonnie, has granted an injunction against the Bank, restraining completion of the sale until the Bank gives security to the tune of just over USD 5,536,550.47 to protect the interest of these concerned Sierra Leoneans.
The Bank has been reluctant to pay the security ordered by the Court and instead is trying under the direction of Lamin Manjang to force the staff to accept a very unfair deal whilst they could be rendered jobless. An experienced retired banker this press spoke to, who had worked with Manjang, told this press this should not be Manjang’s final act as a banker.
It is understood from investigations carried out that the actions of Lamin Manjang to be flown in as an Avengers is not new. When the High Court gave a similar injunction in a case brought by two aggrieved Sierra Leonean employees, Ibrahim Bah and Sulaiman Lumeh, the same Lamin Manjang flew into Sierra Leone to lobby government officials but failed woefully. The Government is applauded for not allowing corporations to take advantage of poor hard-working Sierra Leoneans.
These actions by the Bank tell that its departure is more for selfish reasons, betraying its motto “here for good” and not a fault of Sierra Leone.
It is understood that the Chairman of the Board is also a Sierra Leonean. It is expected he would do the right thing for young hardworking Sierra Leoneans to be protected.
Sierra Leoneans have served Standard Chartered Bank for 129 years. The Bank should leave the country on better terms and leave on a high note: its motto is “here for good” and do the right thing.
