EFFECTS OF ICT ON EMPLOYEES IN NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

ICT has become a major tool for rendering or providing competitive advantages for companies most especially banking industries, in terms of the number of computers in use and the level of telecommunications infrastructure.

ICT is progressively reducing the significance of other factors of production. Through ICT it is now possible for countries to trade without border restriction. Therefore, as a result of anchoring their operations on ICT based delivery system, the banks with IT services have become more profitable.

Though the advantages and opportunities that ICT offers are very great, but this is not without some challenges. Fraud can likely occur more seriously in financial industry (banking) since large amount may be easier to perpetrate electronically than the manual operation. Fraudster can beat various security codes. Though fraud can be greatly minimized, but there could still be some element of dishonest act.

Moreover, another area in which the adoption of information technology has negatively affected the banking sector is the threat it poses for the employees in the sector. According to Jaffer (1968), he ascertained that “unemployment is cyclical phenomenon; technological progress may make for short-run problems of unemployment, which require time for adjustment because of immobility of capital and labour”. According to an official of National Union of Banks, Insurance Financial Institution Employees (NUBIFIE) , one of the greatest achievements of the group before the adoption of Information Technology in banks was the security and guarantee of employment for it members. In the words of Ibrahim (1998), he stated that ICT was adopted in bank without any notice, without any plan for the future existence of the displaced employees, without adequate rehabilitation plan and benefits.

As firms embrace ICT some employees in companies tend to be understandably nervous about the implications. They assume that if that if their company chooses to restructure itself around web technologies, their jobs may disappear. Gates strongly disagrees with this opinion he said “not so unless “restructuring” is just a fancy term to mask layoffs”. He goes on to add, “When a company downsizes, jobs are lost, when a company out sources, job move”. He opines that by and large the changes in organization structure will empower good employees.

Michael Dell characterizes the direct business today as “different combination of face-to-face, ear-to-ear and keyboard –to-keyboard. Each has its place. Internet doesn’t replace people. It makes them more efficient. By moving router interaction to the web and enabling customers to do mere things for themselves, we freed up our sales people to do more meaningful things with customers” .