The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), has raised fresh alarm over the growing instability in Nigeria’s financial sector, warning that the combined impact of the japa syndrome, recapitalisation pressures, and declining labour standards is pushing the industry toward a dangerous tipping point.
According to ASSBIFI, the nation’s financial sector is facing a deepening crisis, with job losses, exploitation, and an increasing reliance on cheap labour steadily eroding the industry’s stability and professionalism.
Speaking weekend at the Association’s 12th Triennial National Delegates Conference in Lagos, ASSBIFI President Olusoji Oluwole, said the sector is being quietly hollowed out by a combination of mass staff exits, unfriendly employer practices, and reform policies that fail to consider the welfare of workers.
Oluwole noted that the Japa wave had cost the sector thousands of experienced staff across banks and insurance firms, leaving institutions scrambling to fill critical positions. Instead of strengthening capacity, he lamented that employers have resorted to replacing skilled professionals with untrained, cheaper contract workers.
He said: ‘This may look cost-effective in the immediate, but it is a false economy. Replacing experienced workers with cheap labour violates national and international labour standards and will ultimately damage organisational productivity and performance’.
The Association also raised concern over the ongoing recapitalisation programme announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in March 2024.
While acknowledging its importance in stabilising the financial system, Oluwole warned that the reforms could trigger another wave of mergers and acquisitions similar to those witnessed during the 2004–2005 recapitalisation era, which resulted in massive job losses and industrial unrest.
He disclosed: ‘We have communicated to the CBN our concerns on possible mergers and acquisitions associated with recapitalization exercises, which may result in job losses, exploitation, and hardship on bank employees. Thus, we have requested the CBN to ensure that ASSBIFI is involved in discussions and negotiations connected with the employees’ job security and compensation, to avoid the crisis experienced during the 2004–2005 recapitalization exercise’.
Beyond recapitalisation and the Japa phenomenon, ASSBIFI decried the steady deterioration of labour standards across the financial sector. Oluwole accused some employers of deploying ‘hostile and anti-union tactics’, including the misuse of the Trade Unions (Amendment) Act 2005, which made union membership voluntary.
He said this provision has been weaponised by employers to intimidate or dissuade eligible workers from joining unions, effectively weakening collective bargaining structures.
‘Our current system intimidates, annihilates, and suppresses trade unions. Functional industrial relations cannot exist without functional and active unions’, he said.
Amid banks bracing for stricter capital requirements, rapid technological change, and rising employee unrest, ASSBIFI insists that urgent action is needed to prevent further damaging job losses—and to stop what it calls a ‘false economy’ approach that threatens the future of Nigeria’s financial institutions.
Addressing Nigeria’s broader socioeconomic challenges—including insecurity, unemployment, economic stagnation, and worsening poverty—Oluwole urged political leaders to prioritise policies that enhance workers’ welfare, strengthen social security systems, and create enabling environments for economic recovery.
Despite these concerns, Oluwole commended employers and managements who have maintained industrial peace in the sector, expressing hope that cooperation will continue as industry-wide reforms intensify.
