A dissertation proposal. Literature review is extremely important. the work must clearly identify a management issue, provide solutions, draw on theory and academic work. academic journals and textbooks are the only acceptable references. People issues and HR due diligence is one of the most sensitive but often ignored issues in a merger and acquisition scenario. When a decision is taken to merge or acquire, company analyses feasibility on the business, financial and legal fronts but rarely gives the same importance if any to the human resources of the firms involved. Statistics have shown that the success rate of US mergers is a mere 30-40% and the major reasons for these failures were attributed to non acknowledgement of the importance of human resources integration in their organisations. In 2004, the CBN announced plans for the capitalisation of the then 80banks and this ‘forced’ the banks into a spate of mergers and acquisitions from which emerged today’s 25banks. It has been over two years in the sector and it seems that Nigerian banks have done a good job of the mergers. OBJECTIVE: This research aims to explore the integration process of the sector with emphasis on the HR challenges and strategies of integration in a merger. It aims to explore issues such as HR due diligence before a merger, the role of the HR Dept, the processes of selecting HR practice/policies for the merged entity, organisational and culture integration issues faced if any and the effect of a merger on employees of the entities before and after the merger. These issues and more will be researched in light of academic theory, the Western experience of some notable mergers, and drawing a contrast if any between theory and practice especially in Nigeria with a different political economy, labour laws etc. METHODOLOGY This research will include but not limited to: 1. A review of policies and practices of the separate entities before the merger (emphasis on organisational culture and structure, employee compensation and benefits, performance measurement and rewards, key talent analysis) 2. Review of the selected policies/practices for the merged entity 3. A survey of management and staff (using questionnaires) 4. A follow up interview of selected management and branch staff based on the questionnaires. this is not exhaustive and will be discussed with the writer as it progesses