The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution (ASSBIFI), has assured workers in the industry that their interest will be protected in the ongoing recapitalisation benchmark recently prescribed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adding that the union have taken steps to ensure that anybody affected is well compensated.

Comrade Olusoji Oluwole, the President of ASSBIFI, in chats with Daily Independent, said the issue of job losses may happen as a result of merger and acquisition, adding that this cannot be over rule.

He said: “We are aware that there may be job loss and this is due to various factors. The first thing was that if banks are merging, there may be duplication of roles. The second issue will be that they may have an enlarged staff number that they may probably want to reduce. We recognise that fact.

Now, the moment CBN announces capitalisation, we, as a union, immediately reached out to CBN, expressing our concern about job loss. And this is as a result of our experience in 2005.

“So, we wrote to the CBN and notified our labour centre. We stated that the issues of those staff need to be recognised and taken into consideration when decisions are being taken. And where for any reason, anybody is going to be affected, then they must be adequately compensated according to the labour laws and that of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that speaks about disengagement.

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“Merger and acquisition was a big deal in the 2005 exercise. Most of the banks then were just or slightly above N25 billion capital base. Moving from N2 billion to N25 billion was a big deal in 2005. But, between 2005 and now, all the banks have raised their capital. I will doubt if there is still any bank today that is still operating on N25 billion capital. Efforts have been made by many banks to shove up their capital base. So fast forwarding, we have about 25 banks operating in Nigeria. We cannot discount the possibility of merger and acquisition”.

Oluwole, emphasised that recapitalisation on its own is a very good development and it is long overdue after the last exercise in 2005.

It would be recalled that the CBN on March 28th announced the upward review of the minimum capital requirement for banks in the country.

The Apex bank mandated minimum capital of N 500 billion, N 200 billion and N50 billion for Commercial Banks with International, National, and Regional licenses respectively.

Likewise, the CBN also raised capitalisation baseline for Merchant Banks to N50 billion and Non-interest Banks to N 20 billion and N 10 billion for national and regional licenses respectively. (Text, excluding headline: Daily Independent)

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