POST CONSOLIDATION CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIC OPTIONS OF THE NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The period of consolidation in the banking sub-sector in Nigeria (July 2004 –December 2005) was a period of change that created anxiety and concerns for employees in the banks. This is because on the long run they are at the receiving end. To many employees, the news of consolidation of banking sub-sector to the tune of N25billion may have been greeted with apprehension. Consolidation which took the form of merger and acquisition involved, downsizing, retrenchment, rationalisation, cost reduction programme, etc. to enable the banks to remain afloat. For instance, a merger of one firm with another firm may likely create duplication. The management may decide that instead of operating from two separate locations which are geographically so close it will be economically wise to shut down some branches. Further, some banks that went to Stock Exchange to source funds, relegated the welfare and working conditions of workers to the background, while gearing all its efforts towards attracting any available funds they could muster to meet the target and deadline (Akanbi and Oso 2005; Olaosebikan 2006). This situation created some problems between management and employees’ union thereby making industrial relations in such banks a difficult and precarious one. It was on the basis of this situation that some management of the banks became more authoritative in the pretense of managing the change brought about by consolidation. It was inevitable that employees as individuals and trade union as a group had to react in their respective ways to resist the antidemocratic forces in the organization and secure their jobs as well as those benefits attached to their jobs (Adeluyi 2004; Omokhodion 2007).

In achieving the objective of bank consolidation, quite a number of risk factors were involved both during and after consolidation which have implications for industrial relations in the banking sector. The human risk factors included;