Barclays, the parent company of Barclays Africa Group, is expected to cut at least 14,000 jobs following an earlier announcement to cut 12,000 jobs this year.
The rise in the new figures ensue as the company made a fresh announcement recently to cut additional 7,000 jobs by 2016, of which 2,000 will be from this year.
In February this year, Chief Executive Antony Jenkins announced that the bank, which has 140,000 staff in total intends to reduce its staff strength to 100,000 by 2020 to “remain competitive on pay.”
Aside cutting staff, Barclays also plan to hive the number of its operations from 1,600 branches to 1,200 branches in few months time.
The decision to cut jobs is in line with the of the Group’s strategy to improve on its operations even as its investment bank shrinks due to a slowdown in the demand for government and company debt – or bonds.
To this end, Barclays said most of the job losses will be from the investment bank with about 70 percent of the affected staff from the UK.
Barclays said these restructuring will help it reposition, simplify and rebalance its operations to improve returns significantly.
The banking group will now focus on international bank, with four core businesses: Personal and Corporate Banking, Barclaycard, Africa Banking and Investment Banking. (VENTURES AFRICA)
