By Olakunle Olafioye
On a certain Sunday morning, a bold inscription, ‘Work in a wine company’ written on the perimeter wall of a compound in the neighbourhood of Taiwo Adekunle (not real name) drew his attention as he made his way to church for an evening service. Despite being in a hurry, he managed to write the phone number accompanying the advertised job vacancy, in his notebook.
When he eventually called the phone number later, the person who received the call gave him an address with an appointment to meet him in person the following day. He was equally required to come with his credentials.
He had little to worry about his safety for the appointment since the meeting point was an office at a popular shopping complex in his locality. Armed with all he was asked to come with, he arrived at the venue and was warmly received by a middle-aged man who introduced himself as the manager of the job agency. After going through his credentials, the man announced to him that he would have to pay a consultancy fee of N5000 before he could proceed with the entire process. “I quickly made a transfer of N5000 and he confirmed receiving the money immediately,”Adekunle explained.
The man would later pick his phone and put a call through to someone announcing that he would be sending a young man for a job interview with him. “His phone was on speaker so I could hear their conversation,” Adekunle explained, continuing, “the person at the other end demanded to know my qualification and he announced that I had HND in Accounting. To my disappointment the person replied that the vacant accounting position had been filled. He listed available vacant positions to include maintenance manager, security guard and factory workers none of which I was interested in.”
After ending the call, the job consultant explained to him that there were still a few other available jobs he could apply for provided he would not mind. He was therefore given a form and requested to tick four different jobs he had interest in or at least manage to pick up if an offer came. “So, I ticked the spaces for accounting, marketing and teaching jobs and left the fourth one out. So the man promised to give me a call as soon as possible.”
Few days later, the manager of the employment agency Adekunle three job vacancies and the addresses of the companies. Two of them were schools while the third was a manufacturing company. He chose to pursue the latter only to discover that the company only needed the services of factory workers.
Thereafter, the man sent Adekunle a few other job vacancies but the closest to his field of study was the position of a salesperson at a chemical outlet.
Countless numbers of job seekers continue to fall victim to unscrupulous and fake recruitment agents on a daily basis. Babajide Olayiwola, fresh from National Youth Service Corp, NYSC, was welcomed with a similar spurious job offer in one of the government agencies a few months ago. According to him, one of his uncles had given me the contact of a man whom he described as an old friend. “When I called the person he asked if I had a minimum of Second Class Upper and I answered him in the affirmative. He then requested I send him scanned copies of my result, discharge certificate, birth certificate and certificate of local government of origin, which I sent to him later that day.”
Upon the receipt of the documents, the contact person reportedly forwarded him a form bearing the name and insignia of the agency. “I was asked to do a printout of the form, fill it and send a scanned copy of the form. But when I completed the form and sent him the scanned copy, he then sent me his bank account details and demanded I pay the sum of N10,000 which he dubbed the processing fee. At that point I informed my uncle who gave me his contact and he promised to do his findings and get back to me.”
When his uncle did get back to him, he confessed to him that he was not aware that money would be involved. However, since he had gone so far with the process, his uncle offered to pay for the processing fee. “My uncle then sent me the N10, 000, which I forwarded to the contact person alongside the payment receipt,” he said. Subsequent follow ups revealed that the job offer was a scam with information revealing that many countless other desperate job seekers had similarly fallen victims.
Fraudulent and unscrupulous individuals have continued to take advantage of hapless job seeking Nigerians, exploiting the rising unemployment situation in the country. The high number of unemployed people seeking jobs also makes Nigeria’s labour market a breeding ground for criminals who lure applicants with spurious job offers with the intention to defraud them. In some extreme cases, innocent job seekers have lost their lives while searching for employment. Not long ago, a 26-year old female graduate of University of Uyo, Iniubong Umoren, was brutally killed. The young lady had responded to an online job advert, only to land herself in the captivity of a heartless person who kidnapped and raped her before killing her.
A Human Resource professional, Mrs. Afolake Amodu, who described the situation as worrisome, said thousands of Nigerians continue to lose their hard-earned money to dubious characters who parade themselves as recruitment agents. “Most of these people do not have jobs to give but they will charge applicants for registration forms yet they will fail to get them any job. There are a few who might have a few jobs but they accept applications and collect money from more people than the number of jobs they have. In a pool of about 100, they might throw in maybe 5 jobs,” she said.
Amodu admonished job seekers to be cautious while searching for jobs. “The problem with most job seekers is that they are often blinded by desperation which prevents them from looking out for a few red flags. For example, if someone offers you a job that only requires you to part with some money and without you having to go through an interview and any other recruitment process that should be seen as a red flag. You should know that no employer will engage you without you being able to sufficiently demonstrate the value you are bringing to his or her business.
“Secondly, when you are seeking a job opportunity with a recruitment agency you should be bold to ask questions such as the availability of the type of job you want and ask if the recruitment process includes an interview as well as whether the interview will not take place in an obscure place or at an ungodly hour. Again, if he or she demands you pay consultancy fees, you should not entertain any fear in letting him Know that you will not hesitate to seek a refund if all he or she tells you turns out to be false.
“Again, job seekers should always do background checks on the company requesting their services in order to be sure of the authenticity of the job offer and their own safety. Ordinarily, a company seeking to employ will not demand for money. But when a job offer is coming from an agency, applicants may be requested to pay but even at that they should be wary of recruitment websites that ask for money upfront without verifiable office address,” she admonished.
