Meta and Nigerian tech firms cut jobs as AI spending rises
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- Meta cut several hundred jobs in March 2026, its second round of layoffs in a single quarter, while spending up to $135 billion on artificial intelligence this year.
- Reuters reported that Meta was weighing cuts of 20% or more of its entire workforce; the company dismissed that report, and the actual March cuts affected fewer than 1,000 people.
- In Nigeria, five companies across banking, crypto, and fintech cut staff in Q1 2026, driven by two separate forces: a central bank deadline forcing bank mergers, and AI tools replacing human roles.
- Nigerian crypto startups Zap Africa and Quidax both cut teams in Q1 2026, with Zap Africa replacing its entire customer support function with an AI tool called Martha AI.
- Kuda Bank, Unity Bank, and First Bank of Nigeria also cut staff, with Kuda’s marketing department losing nearly half its team in a single round.
Meta cut several hundred employees in late March, targeting teams in sales, recruiting, and its Reality Labs division, the unit that builds augmented and virtual reality products. The cuts affected workers in the United States and other international markets. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the move, saying teams across the company regularly restructure to ensure they are positioned to achieve their goals, and that, where possible, other roles would be offered to affected staff.
This was not Meta’s first cut of the year. In January, the company had already reduced Reality Labs headcount by 10%, a move that affected roughly 1,000 of the division’s approximately 15,000 employees. [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/25/meta-is-cutting-several-hundred-jobs/)
The backdrop for both rounds of cuts is enormous AI investment. Meta expects its capital expenditure, the money it spends on infrastructure like data centres and computing hardware, to hit a record level this year, somewhere between $115 billion and $135 billion. [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/25/meta-is-cutting-several-hundred-jobs/) That kind of spending has to be funded somehow, and reducing headcount in slower-growth teams is one way the company is managing the bill.
A larger figure had circulated before the March cuts were confirmed. Reuters reported on March 14 that Meta was weighing layoffs that could affect 20% or more of its nearly 79,000-person workforce. Meta pushed back immediately, with a company spokesperson telling Reuters the story was “speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.” The confirmed March cuts were significantly smaller than what Reuters described.
Some analysts and executives, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have suggested that many tech layoffs in this period are “AI-washing”, a term for companies that frame job cuts as AI-driven efficiency when the real reasons may include pandemic-era overhiring and tighter financial conditions.Whether that applies to Meta specifically is not confirmed. What is confirmed is that Meta is cutting jobs and spending more on AI at the same time.
That Same Dynamic Is Playing Out in Nigeria
Across banking, startups, and crypto, Nigerian companies cut staff throughout the first quarter of 2026, driven by two distinct pressures: a Central Bank of Nigeria deadline requiring banks to meet significantly higher capital thresholds by March 31, and a growing use of AI tools to replace roles previously handled by human teams.
Nigerian crypto startup Zap Africa reduced its headcount from 18 to 10 employees, a 44% cut in February 2026. The company replaced its first-line customer support function with an AI tool called Martha AI as crypto trading volumes fell sharply. The cuts hit design, operations, marketing, and support teams. Co-founder and CTO Moore Dagogo-Hart described it as “a targeted internal restructuring as part of our ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency and align the team with our current product and growth priorities.” One detail worth noting: Martha AI was built by a separate company owned by the same CTO.
Fellow Nigerian crypto platform Quidax also cut an undisclosed number of staff in early March. The company shut down its peer-to-peer trading feature in January 2026 and is shifting its focus from retail customers toward business-facing infrastructure and enterprise crypto payments. Employees who spoke to TechCabal said the criteria for who was let go were unclear.
Kuda Bank, the Lagos-based digital bank, cut at least 100 staff on March 25, including 19 out of 40 employees in its marketing department alone. The bank described the move as a strategic restructuring tied to its next phase of growth, not financial pressure.Kuda has been steadily reducing its losses, and the cuts appear to reflect a leaner model for a company approaching profitability rather than one in trouble.
The banking sector’s story is different. Unity Bank and Providus Bank merged to form Providus-Unity Bank Limited after Unity Bank could not independently meet the CBN’s new minimum capital requirements. Over 100 employees received termination letters on January 1, 2026. The banking workers’ union called the terminations a violation of the agreement reached during the merger process.
First Bank of Nigeria also reportedly cut hundreds of contract workers in early March 2026, under Chairman Femi Otedola’s broader restructuring of the institution, though First Bank has not officially confirmed the scale or the reasons. [techcabal](https://techcabal.com/2026/03/27/5-nigerian-companies-that-have-cut-staff-in-q1-2026/)
