Nigeria has too many Talents, that companies toss coins to recruit job applicants

The law of supply and demand is a powerful tool in Economics that shows the value attached to products, given their ease of availability. When you bring this law into human resources, objectively, it makes recruiters see talents as just a mere data point.

According to the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, between 2010 and 2015, out of the 10 million applicants that applied for higher education, only 26% were accepted. The reason is simple, Nigeria has 185 universities (public and private) with carrying capacity of 500,000 students, but out of its 180 million population, 64% are 24 years old and younger. More so, about 47% of Nigeria’s university graduates are unemployed, despite the size of the economy (Quartz Africa, 2017).
Despite this, the way the recruitments process is handled by companies in the private sector is largely a function of how government officials value their people. It is very easy to conclude actually that the Nigeria labour Law does not cover the private sector.

Quota System: The federal government uses the quota system and the state government uses indigenous quota, with the exception of Lagos State to some extent during the recruitment process. But for Lagos State and few other ones, no matter how indigenous you are, you must be recommended by a top state government official to clinch the job. The private sector has found a way to incorporate this into their recruitment process as well. Below are some of the ways some private companies recruit in Nigeria.
Date of Birth (Age): This is the most common criteria for recruiting University graduates in Nigeria. You are likely to see job advertisement that specifies a second-class upper university graduate, a maximum of 21 years old, with 5 years of work experience. Most times, applicants wonder if such a candidate exists, but in most cases, the companies end up hiring someone. Am not sure even Albert Einstein meet this requirement.
State of Origin: Irrespective of where you live in Nigeria, your state of origin matter in securing jobs. Sometimes, you might fall among the lucky ones if the CEO also came from the same state as yours. It is a piece of important information on most Nigerians resume.
Schools you attended: There has been some recruitment process where candidates are separated from each other based on the universities they graduated from. Nigeria Universities may be poorly funded, but the teaching remains rigorous. That is why It is very rare to see Nigerians University graduates perform badly outside the country. There are countless stories of Nigerians graduates breaking ancient records in foreign universities during their postgraduate studies and some of these students are from the Universities some Nigeria HRs tagged as bad. Nigeria Universities, on average only recruit the best candidates.
Advertisement with no intention to hire: Most advertisements from big corporations in Nigeria are not actually with the intention to hire. But to fulfil the regulatory requirement of advertising jobs for certain numbers of days. So, some companies usually advertise 4 weeks after concluding their hiring process. In some cases, they even endure the whole process without hiring a single person. A popular telecom company once put out a recently dated advert, only to ask one of their top managers, who replied the role was filled 3 months ago. That, it is just to fulfil all righteousness.
How much you were worth: This may sound surprising, but it’s true. Recruitment was once done in Lagos where candidates were asked to show the type of phones and belt they use. At times, you will be asked whether you are connected to top government officials or head of big private corporations. Some are even asked to deposit a large sum of money as a form of insurance before they can get the job. A popular professor had to deposit about 3 million Naira in a bank for his daughter to secure a job in the bank.
The merit system expects recruitment to be full of scrutinies but to be merit-based. Employers seem to have an ulterior motive. Unfortunately, regulators pretend not to be aware of the social maladies.
