The Agency and Mobile Banking Operators (AMBO), a domestic unit of National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution Employee (NUBIFIE) has been commended for creating opportunities amid COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
In a lecture delivered at a delegates conference by members of NUBIFIE over the weekend titled “Navigating through the challenges of COVID-19- pandemic”, a financial expert and staff of Ecobank, Mrs. Ruth Temienor revealed how the banking agents otherwise known as PoS agents created the opportunities to promote economic development.
According to her, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and her effects on the world economy has created a vista of opportunities and challenges appeared across the landscape of sectors and industries which made one thing clear that every challenge comes with opportunities.
In her discuss, Temienor maintained that the terrain of the pandemic demanded a number of skills to enable many industries to stay afloat in the unfamiliar evolving terrain and one of the needs is leveraging on the internet.
She noted that new skill recognized in banking services is agency banking because diminishing importance of bank branches to both customers and the banking industry enhanced a driving interest in agency banking.
Also speaking at the event, the NUBIFIE National President, Comrade Anthony Abakpa revealed the brilliant initiative of the union in avoiding the layoff of workers in the Nigerian financial sector.
According to him, attempt were made by employers to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic to embark on mass unilateral layoffs, but the union’s timely response averted what could have been a widespread of job losses in the sector.
Abakpa thanked Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headed by its president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba for its leadership role as apex body of the union and for his prompt and timely intervention.
Abapka who was returned as the president of the union during the election to choose new executed members charged members to be guided by their loyalty to the union as well as their historical, comparative experiences over the last decades of successive administrations.
In his goodwill address, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, commended the leadership of NUBIFIE for putting together the National Delegates Conference.
Wabba who was represented by his vice, Comrade Joe Ajero said “the reason for our emphasis on service delivery for workers in your sector is because there is no other sector in Nigeria that has come under very huge stress and strain in this era of COVID-19 upheavals like the banking sector.
“We still remember that immediately after the lifting of public lockdown in 2020, most banks announced plans to sack their staff in order to cushion the impact of the loss suffered during the lockdown. It took the intervention of the Congress working with the leadership of NUBIFIE to ride out that storm.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress also went on to engage the employers’ association – the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) on the issue of mass sack of workers and widespread redundancy. A major outcome of that intervention was the development of Memorandum of Understanding which established the mutual commitment by employers of labour and workers’ representative organizations to safeguard jobs and increase productivity”, Wabba revealed.
