Nigerian Banks As Slave Camps

 Apart from working like elephants and feeding like ants, bank workers are subjected to many unwholesome labour conditions by their employers

Helen Asuquo (not real name) is a young, beautiful banker with the United Bank for Africa, UBA, Ikeja, Lagos. As a marketer in the bank, Asuquo said she had to use unconventional means, including sleeping with potential depositors, just to meet her quarterly target of N20 million. In a particular encounter to get a fat account, a wealthy man, after sleeping with her promised to fetch her juicier government accounts if she would spread the favour to his friends. After succeeding in meeting her obligation to her employers, her reward for such hard work was a harder target, which was N100 million. The idea by the banks to give high and unrealistic targets to female marketers is widespread, with some as high as N500 million to N1billion, failing which they are sacked. This unsavoury practice is foisted on the female marketers irrespective of their marital status.

In a bid to meet these targets, married marketers are trapped in a sex-for-account situation. It is rife for some married bankers removing their wedding bands while marketing. This act was corroborated by a Nigerian billionaire with vast business empire, who once told this medium how a female marketer secretly removed her wedding ring in his office, while trying to convince him to open an account with her bank. In spite of the challenge the helpless marketers face, there is no guarantee that their jobs are secured with the banks.

This is one of the unethical practices in the banking sector. Others are casualisation, improper outsourcing of the workforce, long hours of work without commensurate monetary reward, and being eased out of the system without terminal and other benefits .