Labour Raises The Alarm Over Job Losses From Banking, Insurance Recapitalisation

The recapitalisation of Nigeria’s banking and insurance sectors could trigger widespread job losses and deepen pressure on workers’ livelihoods, organised labour has warned, insisting that stronger financial institutions must not be built on workforce displacement.

Labour leaders said on Wednesday that while recapitalisation was necessary to strengthen the capital base, competitiveness, and technological capacity of financial institutions, the process could accelerate restructuring, automation, and cost-cutting measures that could put thousands of jobs at risk if adequate safeguards were not in place.

The warning is coming as banks and insurance companies repositioned their operations to meet higher capital requirements, with labour insisting that the economic consequences of the reforms must extend beyond the balance sheets of financial institutions to the incomes, families and future career prospects of workers.

According to the labour movement, young employees are particularly vulnerable as financial institutions increasingly adopt artificial intelligence, digital platforms, automation and other technologies that could reduce demand for certain categories of workers while creating pressure for higher productivity from those retained.

The labour leaders, therefore, demanded that government and financial-sector employers make job security, fair wages, career development and social protection central to the post-recapitalisation reforms, warning that a stronger financial sector would have little meaning if workers were left without jobs or adequate means of livelihood.

The warning was issued in Lagos at the 2026 World Decent Work Day, where the Association of Senior Staff Association of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Precision, Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment called for adequate protection of workers as the financial sector undergoes major restructuring.

Representing the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, the Zonal Director, South-West and State Controller, Mrs Mienye Badejo, said young workers were at the centre of the changes taking place in the banking and insurance industries.

Speaking on the theme, “Young Workers Organising for the Future: The Post-Recapitalisation Era in the Banking and Insurance Industries,” Dingyadi said the reforms should not come at the expense of workers’ rights and welfare.

According to him, “Recapitalisation is reshaping the landscape of banking and insurance across the financial sector. The young workers are at the centre of this transition or reforms.

“Although these reforms are necessary and meant to strengthen the capital bases, technology and market performance, this should not be at the expense of the workers, job security, fair wages, career development and respect for workers.”

The minister noted that young workers were already facing challenges associated with the transition, including job displacement resulting from automation and restructuring, increasing technological demands, high-performance pressure and uncertain working conditions.

He therefore urged young Nigerians to pursue life-transforming goals through training, skills development and digitalisation to remain relevant in the changing world of work.

Also speaking, the President of PERESSA, Comrade Rufus Olusesan, said workers must be guaranteed dignity and fair compensation for their contributions to economic development.

Olusesan said, “On the occasion of this important day, PERESSA insists that work must not just provide income, it must provide dignity. Unfortunately, under capitalism, workers who create the wealth benefit only crumbs as wages.

“To this extent, the theme of this year’s Decent Work Day, ‘Young Workers Organising for the Future’, is very timely and powerful.

“While the theme is focused on young workers, it is a known fact that the future of work is for young people. Today, globally, 67 million young people are unemployed. In Nigeria, the youth unemployment rate is one of the highest in the world.”

In his welcome address, the Acting President of ASSBIFI, Comrade Isaac Adesina Fanimokun, said that the annual observance of Decent Work Day aimed to strengthen awareness of workplace safety and the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees.

Fanimokun demanded an end to what he described as indecent working conditions, insisting that workers deserved wages sufficient to support decent living standards.

“We demand end to indecent work. The worker deserves a living wage, not the ‘seventy thousand Naira (N70,000) stipend’ that does not take the worker to the bus stop. We demand wages that enhance living standards, and social protection that guarantees dignity and after-work survival,” he said.

On the threat posed by technology and automation to employment, the ASSBIFI acting president said workers must acquire new skills to remain relevant as the workplace changes.

“The future belongs to skilled workers. Digital skills, Artificial Intelligence and robotics are already displacing many workers. We must equip ourselves with evolving workplace technologies and digital skills to improve performance and productivity to remain relevant in the world of work,” he said.

Fanimokun also called for the sustenance of trade unionism, arguing that workers could better protect their interests through collective bargaining.

“Trade Unionism must be sustained. We cannot confront the capitalist Employer in our individual capacities; togetherness is our strength. Our mantra in ASSBIFI is ‘together we bargain, divided we beg’,” he said.

The ASSBIFI leader further urged the Federal Government to urgently implement policies to reduce economic pressure on workers, particularly the rising costs of food, transportation, healthcare, housing, and education.

He described the national minimum wage’s inability to adequately meet basic household needs as unacceptable, stressing that workers deserved dignity and social protection.

“A situation whereby the National Minimum wage cannot buy a bag of rice is absurd, a situation whereby the National Minimum wage cannot pay monthly house rent for an average family of six is absurd, a situation where the National Minimum wage cannot provide three square meals for an average Nigerian family of four for two weeks is nothing but slavery,” he said.

“Workers are not slaves; we must be treated with the dignity that decent work reflects.”