Despite raging poverty driven by acute youth unemployment, Nigerian banks have continued to implement discriminatory and potentially unconstitutional policies of precluding citizens from mid-twenties and above from enrolling for job opportunities in the financial sector, recent checks by Peoples Gazette show.

The controversial practice has been around for decades, but mainstream industry players were expected to have phased it out following widespread condemnation and several resolutions to that effect by the Nigerian parliament. Yet, as of March 2021, Nigerian banks still continued to set age-limit requirements for candidates, discouraging people about 24 to 27 years from applying for advertised positions.

While some businesses like Access Bank set their requirements at 24 years and below, others like GTBank are demanding 26 years maximum; while First Bank and some others require no more than 27 years. Some of the banks require at least three years of practical experience in related fields of application.

In a troubling violation of the Nigerian Constitution’s anti-discrimination clauses, the banks checked by The Gazette failed to consider the plight of thousands of graduates who finish school and mandatory youth service after clocking 27.

Fueling poverty

As of March 2021, at least 918 million people in the world live in extreme poverty. According to the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria, with 209 million, has almost 90 million (43 per cent of its 200 million people) living in abject penury with a living threshold of $1.90. Men are poorer than women in the country. 

Among the extremely poor in Africa’s most populous nation, 45,415,550 are males; 44,407,353 females live in extreme poverty. Further illustrating the dire straits of the so-called ‘Giant of Africa,’ the World Hunger Clock says 59 per cent of Nigerians are grappling with empty stomachs groaning constantly.

One of the drivers of extreme poverty and its twin, extreme hunger, is the rising unemployment rate.

With a 33.3 per cent unemployment rate in Nigeria as of the last quarter of 2020, Gabriel Olalekan, like many young graduates, lost job opportunities due to age discrimination by some private companies.

Mr Olalekan, a graduate of mass communications, was among the thousands of young people churned out from the country’s tertiary institutions in 2017. After his mandatory one-year national youth service in 2018, he came across a job opening in the financial sector but missed out because he was older than the required age.

Nigerian tertiary institutions yearly produce thousands of graduates in various fields and are expected to participate in the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).

The Q4 2020 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report released on March 15 indicated that the country’s unemployment rate rose from 27.1 per cent in Q2, and with the 6.2 per cent difference, 23.2 million Nigerians remain unemployed.

By fate

Although many would have loved to be below the required age for certain jobs, Nigeria’s educational system has over time battled myriad challenges, especially incessant strikes, constituting a major roadblock for graduates striving to beat the age limit set for most jobs.

It appears the middle-class graduates of private universities are in a better position to secure their desired job, as there are no strikes to increase the years they spend in school. But only a few Nigerian parents can afford to send their children to a private higher institution. The school fees are often above their pay packet.

Although employers are at liberty to determine the qualifications, skills, years of experience, or employees’ age limit, how fresh graduates get employed comes into play. There seems to be an unwritten code that the older a fresh graduate is, the lower their employability.

The most common discriminatory practices involve job vacancies that come with conditions that applicants should be “not more than 24 or 27” and “must have a minimum of five years’ experience” for certain positions in a country with graduates’ average age considered to be between 24 and 27.

There is a general belief that young employees have up-to-date knowledge. Employers also prefer those with “longer life expectancy” and graduates that are malleable. Some argue that expertise has no age limit and that age discrimination in jobs for young people contributes to high unemployment rates. Experts also believe the practise has adverse effects on the economy as private companies overlook talented and qualified job seekers because of their age.

Top violators

The private sector seems to be leading in the discrimination by placing what many describe as unreasonable age limits during recruitments.

Most financial sector firms like Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), LAPO Microfinance Bank, and Access Bank have 24 years as the minimum age for entry-level graduates. First Bank and Stanbic IBTC were also amongst those violating the Constitution by setting discriminatory age requirements, according to their employment adverts seen by The Gazette.

Oyinade Adegite, Head, GTBank Corporate Communications, said the age barrier is to enable potential employees to apply for higher positions and not that older graduates are not vibrant enough.

When asked why Access Bank fixed 24 years as a condition for entry-level recruitment, its spokesperson, Abdul Moyol, who claimed to have spoken for himself and not the company, said he does not see age specification as discrimination.

“You know in this age and time, we’re in the millennial age, the young, savvy, and all that, people that are agile,” Mr Moyol said, arguing that every organisation has a reason for putting age requirements for jobs. “There are factors that call for that. I think it’s fair enough.”

Although the Nigerian Labour Act does not prohibit setting an age limit for employment, Section 42 (2) of the 1999 Constitution states that “no citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by the reason of the circumstance of his birth.”

Also, Section 17 (3) of the Constitution provides that “all citizens, without discrimination on any group whatsoever, have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunity to secure suitable employment.”

As the sorry state of age discrimination in employment worsens, some recruitment specialists believe that the government can do little to resolve the age crisis.

Emphasise competence

Competence should be the key consideration for employability and not age. He, however, acknowledged the Nigerian peculiarity; while still maintaining that the situation should have deepened the emphasis on competence, said human resource specialist Folami Ogunleye.

“The government cannot put a restriction or law into place as regarding infringement on the rights of the organisation to employ as they deem fit,” Mr Ogunleye told The Gazette in an interview.

“But given the peculiarities of our country, it does not speak well for us to employ young people with no experience, who are not employable for a role that needs a more experienced hand,” he added.

In 2019, the House of Representatives approved a ban on age discrimination against job seekers in federal ministries, agencies, and departments.

The law applied to all federal government establishments, except for the security agencies, including the Nigerian Armed Forces, where there may be requirements for a high physicality level.

Mr Ogunleye explained further, “Now, for companies that are strict on the age band for employability. I don’t think it should be encouraged because the average person finishes school between 21 and 25, other things being equal. 

“If you’re the type pursuing a career in the financial sector, know that if you don’t finish school before you’re 24 and served (NYSC) by the time you’re 25, or you don’t finish school by the time you’re 22 and serve by the time you’re 23, give yourself another one year to look for a job in a financial sector.” 

Once a job seeker passes the “26 age band,” Mr Ogunleye said. “It is likely the individual will forfeit his dream of working in the financial sector except you get employed as a professional.”

He noted that the individual must have worked in other sectors in the same capacity before “you now make the switch to the financial sector in whatever capacity you feel you can function.”

Labour minister Festus Keyamo did not respond to calls and NLC president Ayuba Wabba declined calls and a message seeking comments for this story. But the Central Bank of Nigeria said the bank does not regulate internal recruitment policies of commercial banks. 

“We understand that banks have different age requirements for people to come in and get training before being deployed,” CBN spokesman Osita Nwasinobi told The Gazette. “It is difficult to expect the CBN to regulate internal recruitment policies of all banks, especially when they have powers to set their own internal guidelines for employment and other activities.”