Four hundred thousand (400,000) Nigerians have applied to less than two hundred (200) vacant positions at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), TechEconomy.ng has gathered.
Recall that about a month ago, the World Bank raised alarm over Nigeria’s rising unemployment situation, saying the country is facing one of the most acute jobless crises in recent times.
This was contained in the Bank’s latest report titled, ‘Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth’, published on its website.
The report read in part: “Nigeria is facing one of the most acute jobless crises in recent times. Between 2014 and 2020, Nigeria’s working age population grew from 102 million to 122 million, growing at an average rate of approximately 3 per cent per year.
Now, in its blog post giving update on the recruitment exercise, ICPC said that for a recruitment approval for less than 200 officers, the Commission received almost 400,000 applications from Nigerians.
ICPC Operative
The post reads:
“The general public will recall that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) commenced a recruitment process early 2020. For a recruitment approval for less than 200 officers, the Commission received almost 400,000 applications from Nigerians. Subsequent to COVID-19 pandemic, government suspended the process.
“In mid-2021, the Commission obtained approval to complete the process. In order to give every applicant a fair chance and at the same time get the best, ICPC decided to apply online tests to prune down the number of applicants, using international best practices.
“Through the service of a recruitment consultant, the Commission has so far conducted a number of rounds of on-line tests, including some repeat tests to accommodate numerous complaints of non-receipt of notification of tests emails, spam of notification emails, complaints of timing-out of test portal, non-submission of fully completed or half completed tests, loss of access to registered email address of applicants, forgotten passwords, and so on. Applicants with further complaints are advised to forward them to [email protected]
“The Commission at extra cost decided to notify applicants by SMS of the dates of tests and advisory that they should check their mails and spam folders for the test email.
“Following this step, only successful applicants – including those with specialized skills that are shortlisted will be further invited for follow up tests, which may be virtual or physical with effect from September, 2021.
“The pruning down process will continue until the Commission arrives at a manageable number of qualified applicants that may be further processed by one on one interviews, certificate verification, health certification, character profiling and other assessments befitting of a law enforcement agency.
“Applicants and the general public are therefore advised to bear with the Commission in this process.
“Please note that the entire process is at no cost to applicants and the general public. Kindly report all requests for money or promises of facilitation to the Commission through [email protected] or call ICPC on toll free line number 0800 2255 4272 or 0803-123-0280, 0803-123-0281, 0705-699-0190 and 0705-699-0191.
ICPC was inaugurated on September 29th, 2000 by the Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
ICPC is regarded as the hub of Nigeria’s fight against corruption. In the order set out at section 6 of the Act 2000, the first duty of the Commission is to receive complaints, investigate and prosecute offenders.