₦airaland Forum

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I am a Geologist currently working in the Oil and Gas sector.

The period of job search is always the most challenging and trying time for young people particularly young men.

I give Glory to God for where I am today. But each time i look back and remember all my sufferings and challenges it just seems like a dream.

Infact i almost lost relevance even in my father's house bc i had no job so i had no say.
Even when i got a job bt bc the pay was little, i still felt miserable.

But something kept me going: My high self esteem and self worth

I graduated with a 2:1 in Geology abt 12yrs ago.
I prepared my CV immediately i got my statement of result before going for NYSC. I had d hope of securing a job before finishing NYSC.
I started practising GMAT and GRE immidiately i finished project defence while awaiting NYSC.

I used the whole of NYSC period to prepare for my job search. I believed i was so good and was bubbling with high hopes and expectations Cos i was scoring very high in the practise test questions.Infact i applied for jobs during NYSC and wrote NNPC and Shell tests bt was nt succesful (my first encounter with reality on ground).

I came out of NYSC without securing any jobs unlike what i expected. I started sending cv to different companies as they advertised. I wrote Oceanic bank, Diamond bank, UBA and was nt succesful though i got to d interview stage in 2 of them.

My first ever job came as a miracle at Accessbank. I was lying down thinking abt my life when my university class mate called me to come to Accessbank Toyin street Ikeja that they are looking for adhoc staff. I arrived their in no time. I got the offer and also contacted some of my other comrades in the struggle hu also got it.

It was a 1month job.The news of my bank job spread among my extended family and church members like wild fire. Though i didnt tell them it was a 1month contract job.We were paid off at month end and i was back home and hidding from people so they wont ask y i didnt go to work.

Next day i went to visit my girl friend (my wife today). I was still in her place when i received a phone call inviting me for an aptitude test and interview at an Oil Servicng company i sent my application to abt 2 months earlier. They actually requested for minimum of 2yrs experience bt i still applied without experience. I got the job! It was my first break through.

Employed as a trainee in 2005 with a gross salary of 33K was nt so bad to start with. Banks were paying GTs 40-70K then.

I knew my worth. I knew i was worth more than that. I now limited my application to major Oil and Gas companies. I wrote Elf test, didnt scale through the test stage. I wrote Shell and got to the interview stage. I wrote NNPC and got the job. Shell put me on stand-by but no message from them till date not even a regret mail.

I still work with the NNPC till date and not regretting it.

So job seekers know ur worth, prepare well and keep pressing.

THE Bank Verification Number, BVN, is another important step the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is using to strengthen the security of banking transactions and to ensure that fraudulent transactions are minimised, if not totally eliminated. The campaign is on, but the public may not realise its importance until it closes in June 2015.

Yet as the public embraces the initiative with enthusiasm, it should be aware that some fraudsters are trying to undermine the exercise by providing seemingly easier registration options for bank account holders. They request these details online and threaten that the account would be closed if the owner does not provide them the details. Their target is the account holder’s money. The best way of enrolling remains direct communication with one’s bank.

BVN uses biometric technology to register customers in the financial system. It records these physical features which are unique to individuals – fingerprints and the face. The record would be used to identify the person afterwards. Once a person’s biometrics have been recorded, and BVN issued the account would be accessed through BVN. The major objectives of the initiative are to protect bank customers, reduce fraud and strengthen the Nigerian banking system.

Biometric enrolment is helpful to people who cannot read and write. Their finger prints and pictures would serve the same purpose as signatures. Multiple account holders would be covered with a single registration in any of the banks where they have accounts.

BVN will help the banking system reduce situations where loan defaulters, for instance, move from one bank to the other and the banks extend new credits to them, without knowing their history. Banks would be able to track transactions across all banks in Nigeria with more ease.

As CBN implements the BVN initiative, it has to ensure the security of the data, from rogue bankers and also importantly from damage, as has been the experience with other sectors that engaged in biometric enrolments. It should also create measures to punish banks that might exploit the information they have to blackmail customers with whom they have disagreements.

BVN is a great initiative that would reduce illegal banking transactions and improve national financial intelligence gathering. The interests of account holders should be accorded importance so that their increased confidence in the banking system would improve the financial standing of banks. Customers will use banks more when they know that their transactions are safe. BVN offers vast opportunities to protect customers, banks and the entire financial system.

The CBN should enhance the security of BVN to protect the entire financial system. It should be on the watch for technologies to keep improving BVN capacities.