Employee can run u down within a short time...I have to sack two of my staff who I allow almost 90% control of my bizness,..now I run my tin alone and have to involve my younger brother partially..if he go chop he go reason not to run the bizness down

It is really appalling and shameful because this disgusting and stupid habit comes almost as a default to Nigerians.
For fellow business owners above, humilitypays and others, I would advise you to buy and read The Mafia Manager by V as this would greatly help you understand your employees and how best to handle them

Everything bad is just attributed to Nigerians, from the UAE to Ghana to ṢÁ and even in Nigeria. Nigerians are just naturally bad people and we're the most religious set of people in the world, we even practice the religion more than those that introduced it to us.


Pastors will scam his congregation, traders will scam customers, employees will scam their bosses, politicians will scam the people that voted them in, Nigerians will scam their fellow Nigerian. The country is beyond redemption, we're only deceiving ourselves.


How will u go to a working environment and scam the citizens, they gave u visa to come into their country, but yet u didn't feel bad to scam their Govt or citizens. Take the recent incident in the Philippines.


To be very honest, if u were a nationale of the affected country, would u want to be associated with any Nigerian? I've not seen what can change this country or its citizens yet.

If I start to talk...e be tinz

There are honest people in Nigeria. But you need a strategy to sift the good from the bad at the recruitment stage.

I have worked with dishonest employers in the past. The problem began when we stopped questioning how people made money in the 90s. It was the making of the foundation for Yahoo Yahoo. "Ah, the guy don hammer," "The guy na sharp man." That was how we elevated wealth accumulation at all costs, and lost our values as people.

The political and social circumstances were bad at the time. It is worse now.

There are good Nigerians out there. You just need to figure a way to screen correctly.

Masonkaycares:
This should be directed to the family. This is where I core problem lies. Imagine as a kid your parents earn between 100-400k each and yet they find it hard to give you monthly stipends of at least 1k but spend on unnecessary things like filling the house with different species of clothes (mothers) fathers spend on buying drinks everytime visitors are around. Come to think of it in my POV I will be annoyed and it will be difficult to confide in my parents. Secondly peer groups from the first example you have a friend who also has parents of the same calibre as your parents and they do the opposite, they give monthly stipends to him natural instincts will tell you"Dude shey you Sabi where mommy dey keep money, just go carry 2k she no go observe". Man me in such position ama do it not minding what will befall.

What manner of words are these? You have NO EXCUSE to steal, and NO ONE is responsible for your decision to steal or cheat. Kindly change your "entitlement" mentality, it will get you close to nowhere. Thanks.

I shamefully have to agree on this... Even trading on paxful and similar sites I run from Nigerians.. Chinese and Indians are just too professional

solmusdesigns:
I shamefully have to agree on this... Even trading on paxful and similar sites I run from Nigerians.. Chinese and Indians are just too professional

oga shatap
you're trading nothing

oracle009:


What manner of words are these? You have NO EXCUSE to steal, and NO ONE is responsible for your decision to steal or cheat. Kindly change your "entitlement" mentality, it will get you close to nowhere. Thanks.

It's not entitlement. It's what is necessary

My mum owns a restaurant in benin and we are tired of changing staffs. Anyone we hire wants to steal.
Even meat 50 naira. They want to steal it too.. It got to a point we stopped driving them cus of stealing sef.
Its so hard to find a honest person nowadays.

Make we talk am make them hear.

Whenever I am at a filling station buying fuel, after checking the meter I focus my attention at the attendant's hand, if he/she starts to squeeze the pump severally, then I know he/she is trying to sell me 'air'.

Nigerians must change.

Gerrard59:


"So far in business, I've come to realise that honesty should be elevated over competence in recruitment. You can teach someone to be competent but you can't do same to be honest.

Someone can be taught to operate a machine but not to say the truth.

Honesty over competence."

I posted that on a different social media channel few days ago. Apparently, I'm not alone. But the aspect of allowing staff to handle physical cash to deposit creates an avenue for theft irrespective of nationality. I have been advised to implement a kinda of accounting/finance system that tracks payment, so I believe the person can do same.

Can you please explain more about this accounting/finance system that tracks payment please?

humilitypays:
As a company owner in Nigeria I 100% agree with you.


Majority of Nigerians lack honesty and integrity whenever money is concerned, and they take this greed, dishonesty and lack of integrity to leadership positions and government appointments.


Nigerian custom officers will all go to hell fire! Anyone of them you see in church is wasting time, they are more criminal minded than the Nigerian Police.

Same goes to FIRS staffs!


White people need to come and recolonise Nigeria till Jesus comes because we have proven to be unworthy to rule ourself


If you want people to handle your company's financial department, employ young girls that have no boyfriend and doesn't do slay mama. All those girls that look ugly and focused, employ them, but you see all those girls trying to be like Kim K at work, don't hire them, it's either they are potential criminals or they have criminal boyfriend that will pollute their mind and teach them how to steal your money


If you go to my company premises, all the girls working there are ugly looking with deeper life hairstyle, I am not foolish, I don't need slay mama in my company since I am not running a marketing business or bank that require marketing with pretty ladies to influence foolish men. During final interview I must see the applicant, if you are beautiful and dressed to kill, you have failed my interview already

This thread is quite insightful. I am making plans to come and open up a manufacturing company in Nigeria, but the issue we are discussing here has been a worry to me. Reading all the comments here, I am really learning great things here. Thanks to the Op for opening this wonderful thread.

DonXavi:
Can you please explain more about this accounting/finance system that tracks payment please?

An information management system that helps records payments into companies' bank accounts instead of allowing staff to handle physical cash.

Barryseal:
Nigerians are experts in running things down. I have seen hotels, filling stations, super markets, transportation companies, run down by petty thieves in the name of managers.

However, we must lookat the living conditions of these blue collar workers. Most companies lack proper welfare package for their workers. You can't pay a man N15k in this present economy and expect 100% honesty from him. Even the honest ones will learn sharp practices just to make ends meet.

Also, you don't expect a company to pay her staff more than she generates in revenue. Loans have to be repaid, profits to be reinvested, expansionary projects, dividends to be paid etc. That said, the GDP growth has not increased above 2% in the last five years. How then do you expect businesses to pay their staff very well? Everything boils down to the economy and how it's being managed. Additionally, rather than steal, these employees have the choice of resigning.

amajato:
One of the problem is that employers underpay Nigerians. The foreigner you want to employ will be paid almost 10x what you were paying the Nigerian. Pay your staff well and they will help build your company. You pay your manager 100k and he sees cash flow in the company worth millions of naira monthly and you want him to be honest. Employ a foreigner and you will pay him 500k why won't him be honest.

And there we have the mentality that fuels this theft. So because a business generates millions in revenue and the person is paid 100K, that warrants theft? Did you ask whether if there are loans to be repaid? Won't the business expand? Dividends to be distributed? Profits to be reploughed? How about resigning instead of stealing? Isn't that a choice too? Negotiating with the employer for increased earnings?

Masonkaycares:
This should be directed to the family. This is where I core problem lies. Imagine as a kid your parents earn between 100-400k each and yet they find it hard to give you monthly stipends of at least 1k but spend on unnecessary things like filling the house with different species of clothes (mothers) fathers spend on buying drinks everytime visitors are around. Come to think of it in my POV I will be annoyed and it will be difficult to confide in my parents. Secondly peer groups from the first example you have a friend who also has parents of the same calibre as your parents and they do the opposite, they give monthly stipends to him natural instincts will tell you"Dude shey you Sabi where mommy dey keep money, just go carry 2k she no go observe". Man me in such position ama do it not minding what will befall.

If you spend time to work for your money using either mental or physical strength, will you die?

Coldie:
Real, the country is messed very messed up.

Go to the police for a case of loss, u are already running at a loss police would still want to extort u more loss for no reason in the name of investigation at the end they will end up doing nothing.

So many sectors of Nigerias economy is not working thanks to lack of trust

Nigeria is largely a lawless society which is the aspect of rule of law is included in ease of doing business rankings globally. Although, there is corruption in other emerging countries, but when you have consistent and persistent low GDP growth and an inherently dishonest society, it's not surprising why Nigeria has the largest number of poor people in the world. Businesses can survive in a dishonest society with high economic growth growth but when growth is low and society is dishonest, they resist from investing esp in the real economy.

Gerrard59:


Also, you don't expect a company to pay her staff more than she generates in revenue. Loans have to be repaid, profits to be reinvested, expansionary projects, dividends to be paid etc. That said, the GDP growth has not increased above 2% in the last five years. How then do you expect businesses to pay their staff very well? Everything boils down to the economy and how it's being managed. Additionally, rather than steal, these employees have the choice of resigning.

I agree with you on the economy. It is a catch 22 situation. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Workers are motivated if they are well enumerated. This is basic human psychology and the developed world have come to terms with this long ago, that is reason for the differential in basic living wage over there and here in Nigeria.

Take for instance, if the minimum wage was pegged at 100k, do you really think your poultry attendant will steal eggs and chicken at the close of work? 100k might seem unrealistic with the present economy but if things must improve, the Gdp and per capita income but be distant from where it is currently.

You can't curry out honesty out of a desperately poor man. You may succeed for a short while but only a matter of time.