unproductive years at home after
graduation, Evelyn was badly in need
of a job. After passing the aptitude
test and first interview, she was
pretty confident as she walked out of
her second interview for a
management trainee position at
Access Bank .
But her confidence immediately
atrophies like an ice cube thrown into
a burning fire when she was told, over
the telephone, by an official of the
bank that she needed to source a
total of N1 million from at least 10
new customers within a week as a
prerequisite for being employed.
Her parents immediately kicked
against her continuing with the
recruitment process saying it was
exploitative. But the thought of
having to sit at home for an indefinite
period in search of another job was
far scarier for Evelyn. She was
determined to meet the bank’s
demand.
Hard as she tried, she could only get
eight people to open new accounts
with the bank. Two days later she got
a call from the bank telling her she
didn’t make the cut.
“In Access Bank it has to be ten over
ten or nothing,” the voice at the other
end of the phone said.
Evelyn was devastated. She felt used
and dumped.
“After the second interview, I thought
I already had the job,” she said.
In fact she was called for the third
interview, which is usually a
formality, according to an Access
Bank source.
John, another applicant, said he
didn’t feel comfortable raising N1
million as a prerequisite for
employment.
“I remembered telling myself this was
nonsense. Why would they ask me to
get N1 million before I was
employed? I didn’t even bother to
try.”
Some of applicants who spoke to
PREMIUM TIMES said the bank gave
them ten account-opening booklets
each carrying Access Bank employee
numbers for this purpose.
“When I say the employee numbers on
the account-opening booklet, I was
confused. Does it mean that I’m
running around for someone else to
take the credit,” wondered another
applicant who raised N900,000.00
and was not employed.
Evelyn, who said she is now doing
what she described as her dream job,
told PREMIUM TIMES one of those
who opened an account with her went
through a lot of hassles when she
tried to withdraw the money she
deposited.
“She wasn’t given a debit card or
chequebook. They kept telling her at
the branch that they have issues with
her account when she when to
withdraw the money she deposited.
After paying several visits to the
branch over three months she could
only manage to withdraw part of the
money she deposited.”
Access Bank says the practise of
asking applicants to generate N1
million within one week is to prepare
them for “the rigour of the highly
competitive market.”
The bank’s Head of Corporate Affairs,
Segun Fafore, says only candidates
that have passed the entry
requirement are asked to raise this
amount.
“It is part of the training. It is part of
the recruitment process. This person
will certainly go to the training
school. It is just the practical aspect
before you go for the four months
training programme,” he said.
However, none of those we spoke to
this paper were called to resume at
the bank’s training school. Despite
excelling at all the pre-recruitment
evaluations, they were specifically
rejected because they raised less than
the N1 million asked by the bank.
Employment bond
Access Bank has been courting
controversies for some time now due
to some of its recruitment practices.
In what is a blatant disregard of the
country’s labour laws, the bank
makes new employees sign bonds
that force them to stay in the bank’s
employ willy-nilly for at least two
years.
Access Bank says it does this to
protect the “heavy investment” it
makes in training its staff. It says due
to the quality of training its staff get
they are usually poached by both
local and international firms.
“The bank invest heavily in building
the competence and capacity of its
staff to a level of admiration that
matches what is available in the
global financial community,” Mr
Fafore says.
“Following market tendencies, it is
not surprising that with this kind of
investment in its people other
institutions, financial and non-
financial, within and outside Nigeria
encroach on the bank’s School of
Banking Excellence.”
Mr Fafore says the bank designed its
employment contract to “stem the
tide” of employee poaching.
Lagos lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, describes
the practice as “shady, irresponsible
and illegal.”
“From employment and banking
perspective it was illegal for the bank
to compel people who are not
employees of the bank to discharge
banking duties,” he said.
“Having compelled these applicants
to go and be scouting for customers
for them as a condition of being
offered employment, a relationship of
implied agency has crystallised
between the bank on one hand and
those prospective employees. So the
bank has made them her agent by
sending them out to go and bring
customers so the question there is if
the bank had made these people her
agent how did the bank remunerate
them at the end of the day?
It flies in the face of constitutionally
guaranteed rights of citizens. A bank
is expected to be a repository of
integrity. This is nothing but
obtaining property by false pretence.
This is nothing but fraud.”
Obituaries and epitaphs
Allegations of malpractices and
abuses have dogged recruitment
processes and staff training in the
Nigerian banking sector. For instance
in 2011, a group of Guaranty Trust
Bank’s entry level trainees were
expelled on the last day of training for
what the bank described as
“[contravening] several basic
programme rules that include
professional conduct.”
But several members of Sapphire, as
the class was nicknamed, said the
consultant instructor during the
training, Tutu Sholeye of Learners
and Trainers, traumatised the group
with an unending string of vile
comments, verbal abuse and attack
on their self-esteem.
They told this paper that they were
asked to write their obituaries and
epitaphs as part of the training
regime.
“We were shocked when she told us
to write our obituaries and epitaphs.
And it didn’t end there; whatever you
wrote will be used as an excuse to
rain more insults on you,” said Taye,
still visibly angry two years after the
experience.
For instance, a trainee who smokes
and had indicated to live up to 85
years in his obituary was told by the
trainer: “how do you expect to live
that long with the worthless life
you’re living?”
Learners and Trainers website says it
focuses on the “attitude training and
personal development” rather than
focus on “skills and knowledge
training.”
Ms Sholeye declined to speak with
PREMIUM TIMES. She said as a
consultant, it was unprofessional for
her to speak about what happened
during the training.
Peter Ogunnubi, a psychiatrist at the
Lagos University Teaching Hospital,
LUTH, says this style of training is
“archaic and barbaric.”
“It is a form of mental torture that can
lead to post-traumatic and
personality disorder.” He says this is
even more so because the trainees
didn’t get the job.
Guaranty Trust Bank says this
approach to staff training has brought
out the best in its employees.
“The curriculum adopted for the
training programme which all
employees must undertake, has been
in use for the same period and you
will no doubt agree with me that our
Bank has the finest, most
professional and knowledgeable
human capital in the country today,”
says Pascal Or, the bank’s official in
charge of Brand Management.
Regulatory laxity
Those wronged by unfair recruitment
may have to look further from the
Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN, if they
hoped to get succour for the wrong
done to them.
CBN Director of Corporate
Communications, Ugochukwu
Okoroafor, says the CBN cannot act
on hearsay.
“Please note that the allegations have
not come to our attention with
concrete evidence. This is necessary
to enable us take action,” he said.
“There is nothing the CBN can do on
the basis of mere hearsay, other than
moral suasion,” he added.
Mr Okoroafor, says the CBN prohibits
profit and liability targeting by banks
and other unethical practices.
“Unfortunately, these are not things
you can pick up from financial
records when conducting bank
examinations. Neither can interviews
with Bank Management or staff reveal
them.”
However Mr Okoroafor said the bank
encourages whistleblowers to come
with names, dates and evidence of
malpractices.
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