Access Bank demands N1M For Employment, GTB Asks For Obituaries.

Having spent almost two
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 went 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 who 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.
Alarmed, Lagos lawyer and frontline
human rights advocate, 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.
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