By: Isaac Shobayo
EuroAfrica, an academic-based Nigeria-Poland company has announced plans to recruit about 500 Nigerians to work for a Poland-based company, Ditola Spolka.
The Founder of EuroAfrica, Olakunle Alayande, while speaking when he led the CEO Ditola Group of Company, Michał Serocyński to a courtesy visit to the Director, Economic Trade and investment, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Akinremi Bolaji, said he has partnering with private universities in Nigeria and taking nIgerians to Poland for the past 15 years, and he is fully operating in Abuja.
“An opportunity came up with Ditola Group Companies in Poland that they would like to recruit Africans and Nigerians and they found me as the best person they could partner with that will engage Nigeria and also link them with the possibility of empowering youth here in Nigeria and take them to Poland to work in different areas like factories, warehouses, that has been going on for a while and there are some Nigerians already working with the company in Poland, this exercise started in January.
“I had the opportunity to meet with the company’s management in Poland, having being convinced with what the company can do and the capacity of what they can recruit here in Nigeria, I felt like it is worth doing and we decided to come in together and follow the due process on how we can go about it with all the agencies in Nigeria and formalize it with the government,” he said.
He said EuroAfrica Services is bringing foreign expatriates from Poland to Nigeria to develop a bilateral agreement between the two countries.
“EuroAfrica will be outsourcing for reputable companies in Poland here in Nigeria, by so doing, it is important to go through agencies registered here in Nigeria like the Ministry of Labour and the Nigerian Police.
Currently the company is looking at employing 500 Nigerians as the first take, after on, the company will like to take up to 2000 Nigerians to Poland,” Alayande said.
Segun Ige, the International Representative of Ditola Group, said the company had started by recruiting Nigerians in Poland just to show their engagement in dealing with Nigerians, but the CEO of the company said it is not enough, that they have to go to the source.
“This issue of recruitment sometimes is misinterpreted by people to be human trafficking or maybe modern day slavery but we are trying to prove this wrong because we care about the welfare of the workers.
“Ditola trains their workers on arrival before they go to job, and after training, they are given the opportunity to work for a period of time, after which they can go to school for further studies if they want”, he stated.
Ambassador Bolaji in his response, said Nigeria has local recruitment agencies that must be registered in the country and must have all the necessary certificates.
He said the country also has international recruitment agencies that they work with, which they have to submit their forwarding address to work with.
“Those that you will be recruiting, the Ministry of Labour will be involved in the recruitment exercise. The good thing is that the policy has taken off unlike when there was suspension for over two years because there was no framework, now there is a framework, business can resume.
“At this very time it is a bit challenging for us because when we talk about modern day slavery, organ harvesting, harassment and very hard circumstances which people might be put through, so all of these are things of concern to us and that is why we will want to make sure that you follow the due process.
“So, we need to involve our embassy in Poland, it will take time, and it is good you have taken a nice step”, he said.
A representative from the Nigerian Ministry of Labour, Phoebe Kumi, who is an Assistant Director in the Ministry, said this is the kind of collaboration they look forward to in the Ministry to provide labour to foreign countries and to also ensure that Nigerian citizens have jobs.
“The Ministry of Labour has this mandate to promote regular labour migration and this is one of the ways to go. The Ministry registers private employers, both local and international.
“We have a process and you have to be licensed by the Ministry before you can recruit Nigerians”, she said.
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