As a result of the completion of the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank Plc by Access Bank Plc, the bank on Friday terminated the employment of about 1, 500 employees of Intercontinental Bank.

Also, it was gathered that the bank shut down some branches of Intercontinental Bank nationwide. A visit by our correspondent to two of Intercontinental Bank’s branches in Ibafo Area and Ikeja confirmed the report. The branches were shut with only security personnel talking to customers. When asked why the bank did not open, one of the security personnel told our correspondent that the network was down and directed our correspondent to another Intercontinental branch.

It was learnt that the sacked employees were served with their disengagement letters on Friday.

When contacted, the Head, Corporate Affairs Department, Access Bank, Mr. Austin Edoja, confirmed that some branches had been shut down, but declined to give further comment, saying, “We will issue a release on that later.”

Our correspondent learnt that the action was taken by Access Bank with an eye to reducing overheads.

Access Bank and Intercontinental are expected to fuse into one entity by March 2012, and the closure of some branches of Intercontinental Bank is seen by analysts as a step in that direction.

Already, Intercontinental Bank branches are being rebranded in Access Bank colours, in preparation for the completion of the merger process in March, which will leave Access Bank as the surviving entity.

According to a statement by Access Bank to the Nigerian Stock Exchange in December, Intercontinental Bank Plc will cease to exist by March 2012.

The statement said the merger of business would be effected through a Scheme of Merger pursuant to Part XII of the Investments and Securities Act (No 29) of 2007.

Access Bank said it had earlier envisaged that the merger process would take between 18 and 24 months, adding that it was able to fast-track the process due to a number of factors ranging from the pre-merger integration process and the support of stakeholders.

The statement read, “We are pleased that this acceleration has been made possible by the success of our pre-merger integration processes leading to the achievement of key milestones well ahead of initial target dates.

“This has been assisted by the high level of cooperation and support received from all stakeholders to date. The acceleration has also been necessitated by the successful completion of change of control at the parent as well as subsidiary levels of Intercontinental Bank.”

“To ensure that the momentum is sustained and that value is preserved, Access Bank has decided to accelerate the merger timetable in line with the progress of integration. This is particularly important as some critical aspects of the integration exercise such as customer and product integration will only be completed subsequent to the legal merger of both banks,” it added.

http://www.punchng.com/sports/access-bank-sacks-1500-intercontinental-employees-shuts-branches/

trouble in the offing.

the number is startling. there is a way access bank could absorb these staff than outright sack. salaries could be slashed in order to allow room for co-opting these sacked staff. sacking them compound the problems of the economy. taxes will be lost, dignity will be lost, despair will be gained, suicide might be attempted. I wish something could be done to them.

another unemployed added 2 d one already existing god help us.

many don't have jobs while the ones thinking they have woke up one day to realise that they wont be going to work anymore.

as far as Nigeria is concerned no white collar job is secured. take it or leave it in any work you do always get some kind of skilled work ability in case the white job stops you will still have something to be doing. do not waste any more you get while working.

buy properties and do some good investments should anything happen you wont be forced to head down to the village.

my sympathy to the sacked workers. God provided he has also taken and wil provide a better one for you guys. take heart.


as for intercontinental bank since past 5yrs have never seen that bank as serious. i hate when i even go there to make deposit in any of their branch. now see what has happened. hope the sacked workers are mostly senior workers so they will know how life is when they give out loans and benefit from it. mtchew.

@koolking

unfortunately in the business world, there is no room for sentiments. You cant have 2 branches of the same bank on every street. Having recently gone through organisational change myself, you will be suprised that majority of people will rather have people laid off than have their salaries slashed. If you keep on 10 people @ half their previous salary, morale will be completely lost but if you lay of 5 and kep the remaining 5, then the 5 you have kept on remain somewhat happy

Whala dey o! At the start of year, SACK!! We all need to try and have a franchise to run, no matter how small.

Rising unemployment for the graduates. Young people should venture into skills acquisition. These bank jobs, its either you are sacked or you are overworked and at the end you get tired and leave.

So how will these guys and their depvendants survive? Crime? Hope they do shoot Sanusi and GEJ first rather than some innocent person who gets hurt in armed robbery attack. Sheesh!

Ah !
My blood vibrated when i saw this, very very sad
, schools should start training students to be entrepreneurs o, not the easiest thing to do but you have a choice.
Security sha o.

because they were no long useful

Sad, but to be expected. Mergers or acquisitions always come with job losses.
It could be argued that Intercontinental's footprint was much larger than Access', as far as retail banking goes. Logistically, there'd have been no feasible way to absorb all of the Intercontinental staff into Access.

I hope they got some sort of severance, at least.

This definitely potrays the STATE OF THE NATION.
The reality is that UNEMPLOYMENT, INSECURITY, AND POP will continue growing as long as we dont put some certain things at CHECK. Me thinks that there is no immediate solution but long-term solution (say 50years) that would be constantly reviewed otherwise, Nigeria is a FAILED state in WAITING mode.

My condolence to the affected family most of whom must have gotten a whiff of the tornado.
My commiseration, also, albeit in advance, to those that would soon be engulfed in this terrible inferno called RETRENCHMENT[color=#770077][/color].

.

It is really painful cos dia appointments were terminated not disengaged. As for d severance pay, imagine 1.2 million after working for 4 years

Its always good to be doing something by the side in case or at least have enough savings.

I can't remember if I said it on nairaland or not but I said it I would say this again privatisation would and capitalism would lead to improvements in the short term but in the long term it would serve as a platform for cabalization service product and price fixing ihave I digressed yes because soon then later banking services would be offered at a standardised price we are about to witness challenges in or economic system if bureaucracy long term policies are not put in place ecobank would also lay off oceanic bank staff their would be no market to absorb them, the cost of running services in these banks would reduce to encourage customers other banks would have to follow suit to be profitable while the level of unemployable people would increase and all of this was caused by a free man SOLUDO and universal banking the mess is just getting thicker

Shows that Job Security is and has always been a farce.
Start something on the side when you Start work.
Work with the Vision of Owning your Own Business and Employing others not one of retiring with a Handshake and Gold Watch

[size=8pt]Salary or Self Employed, Which do u prefer?[/size]

Salary or Self Employed, Which do u prefer?

Never ever work for someone! The job security is never there. Start your every own company today! The earlier you start, the better for you. A word is enough for the wise.

It was expected. New owners, new workers especially dos @ d top-level

kaysy:

Salary or Self Employed, Which do u prefer?

they both have their risks, I may be self-employed nw and earning 200k a month but will still jump at a job offer of 750k/month.

Barr. Gene:

Never ever work for someone! The job security is never there. Start your every own company today! The earlier you start, the better for you. A word is enough for the wise.

if everyone starts a company, then nobody's gona work for anybody, I agree we need more entrepreneurs but the hierarchy's gotta be there.

In terms of M&A, it's inevitable that intercontinental staff would be affected in terms of job loss especially branch workers. There would be some new jobs creation as well due to expansion.

Good move.

Let us see how the bankers will now apply themselves to entrepreneurial skills. Many of them look down on those who come to the bank to ask for loans. Now let them taste the other side of the coin.

I had to read the topic over again to ensure i wasnt mistaken, access bank bought over intercontinental and not vice versa. With all the noise about intercontinental bank, you wuld think they'd be the last bank standing. Same with oceanic. I guess theres more than meets the eyes in the banking sector. Gtb all the way,

stagger:

Good move.

Let us see how the bankers will now apply themselves to entrepreneurial skills. Many of them look down on those who come to the bank to ask for loans. Now let them taste the other side of the coin.

that is a very sad comment. are you celebrating another person's misfortune?  anyway job loss is not end of life.
Shame on Access for this callous move.

Remii:

that is a very sad comment. are you celebrating another person's misfortune?  anyway job loss is not end of life.
Shame on Access for this callous move.

but how is downsizing a callous move, should I run at a loss by keeping more staff than my business needs.

stagger:

Good move.

Let us see how the bankers will now apply themselves to entrepreneurial skills. Many of them look down on those who come to the bank to ask for loans. Now let them taste the other side of the coin.

Hmmmmm, I think that's quite common with all Nigerian banks not just intercontinental. I was in Zenith the last time I was in Nigeria, was there to update the KYC stuff they recently introduced. The customer service was appalling.

it's not fair. we are talking of the crazy rate of unemployment

in the country and they are doing this. yes i agree it's their business

now, but better still they would have devised a means to accommodate them.

They have always believed in the use of contract staffs, I guess Access wants to keep the trend!

Imagine a Nigeria where every worker is an entrepreneur!

My sincere condolence to d affected families.

@leomax, pls inbox me.

Sad one. I was in their shoes 3years ago, was top 5 in training school, and it came as a shock while i was told to leave, but looking back now, i thank God it came earlier than now, cos i was made to think critically on ways to survive, and 3years after, i still have in cash 40% of our severance pay and after setting up a little biz. I thank God! At all affected, take your time, think of what biz u can do, and at d same time, send out your cv, do both, u could be lucky! Need advice- kaybob24@gmail.com. Shalom!