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It is really interesting

There is a report in Today's Saturday Punch about an alleged employment scam by a company in Lagos. The reporter Kunle Falayi claims that the company- Open Cloud Limited collects money from applicants for their training programs with the promise that they will secure employment upon completion of the program

Interesting read. Dont know what to make of it

In this report, KUNLE FALAYI gives an inside look at the workings of recruitment agencies fleecing unemployed youths with offers of jobs that never come

“Your application for the customer service position has been received. Come with your CV and passport photo to 634, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island, Lagos by 11am on March 10. Be prepared for a CBT test. Call Mrs.*** on **** for eligibility.”

When Chisom Agu got the text message above from a company named Accugenix on Wednesday, March 9, she said she could almost hear her heartbeat pounding in her chest as her anticipation increased.

“I thought, ‘Yes, finally, a company in Victoria Island! I quickly said a word of prayer to God to make this one successful,” she said.

But what Agu did not know was that Accugenix has so many other names. Bidax Nigeria Limited, Open Cloud Communications Nigeria Limited, Rexa Corp, and Inexia are some of the fanciful names this company uses to make millions off unemployed Nigerian youths.

“To enhance job opportunities, you must be ready to undergo a 10-day intensive training,” the company said.

Official statistics put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at about 9.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015. For some few dubious organisations, Nigeria’s unemployed and desperate population has simply become a goldmine.


Armed with a curriculum vitae that read Adebanjo Kayode Amos and passports as required along with a copy of the text from ‘the company’, our correspondent visited the office located on the ground floor of the Elephant Building, Adeyemo Alakija, a high rise housing numerous other companies in a very competitive location.

At the main gate of the building, the security men did not waste time in directing our correspondent to the ground floor office when they were told that it was about the job interview.

In the lobby of the building, another receptionist directed our correspondent to the entrance of the company where “people have been going for job interviews.” There, a uniformed guard, who doubled as the doorman stood like a sentry as he demanded to see the text message invitation for interview. As soon as he was shown the text message, the door opened without ceremony.

There, in the clean, glittering reception of “the company,” a pretty young lady, working the phone and a computer, demanded to see the text message in a very business-like manner.


But all the candidates our correspondent spoke with said after the two-week training, it is always a long wait for a job that never materialises.

Saturday PUNCH contacted all the numbers used by this recruitment agency in inviting candidates for interviews.

One of the company’s contacts, a lady identified as Gbemi eventually picked up. When asked about the manager of the agency, her reply was, “I am very busy now. I am even too tired to stand up and give the phone to the manager. Maybe you could call back tomorrow?” But when told that it was urgent and that it concerned the activities of their company and allegations of job scam, she said, “Please, send a text message about the issue, I will show it to him and he would call you back later.”

More agencies, more scams

But Accengix with its string of aliases, is not the only one involved in this scheme. Saturday PUNCH learnt that the issue of texts messages of unsolicited job offers and interviews has become an increasing annoyance in Lagos and many other parts of the country.

Another company, which job seekers made allegations of job scam against is Ranstard Dynamic Resources Limited, an agency operating on the ground floor of an old building at 16 Ondo Street, off Apapa Road, Costain area of Lagos.

This company too uses the strategy of sending unsolicited interview invitations to job seekers.

One of the candidates, who was forced to answer the unsolicited “job offer” invitation, Tope Gholagun, told our correspondent of a scheme which saw her having to listen to a seminar talk from about six different “resource persons.”

“The first day I went there, we were about 25. At one point in the ‘recruitment process,’ they started to play us business motivational speeches. I asked what they do and one of them said they were into IT, safety and business management.

“They said we would go through an interview with their MD but that never happened. Later, after all the speeches, which were aimed at winning us over, they finally brought out a training form, which we would pay N13,500. I went there for about three times during the whole process out of curiosity. They later sent me a text that I should come for an induction. But it was clear they had no job to offer us.”

Our correspondent contacted one of the phone numbers attached to the messages Ranstard sent out and a man identified as Sylvester denied any form of scam in their operation. He said, “We are involved in GNLD marketing and we make it clear to appplicants when they come that they would be marketing GNLD products. But one of the applicants who went for the job said she was told nothing of such.

Asked his company sourced for the phone numbers of job seekers who got text messages even though they never applied for the job there, he said, “Do we force anybody to pay anything? If they did not apply to our company, how would they have got text messages inviting them for job interviews then?”

Source: http://www.punchng.com/inside-lagos-multimillion-naira-job-scam-office/


Cc: Lalasticlala, Obinoscopy, Mynd44, Oam4j

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