Funke sat in a bright office in Lekki, clutching an offer letter that was barely three sentences long.
“Don’t worry about the details,” her new boss said with a smile. “We’re a family here. We’ll take care of you.”
Six months later, the “family” fell on hard times. Funke was let go on a Friday afternoon with no notice, no severance, and a month of unpaid salary. When she asked about her pension, she discovered her employer hadn’t even opened an account for her.
Funke’s experience is a mirror of the data found in our Beyond Awareness research. With only 26.2% of young Nigerians in formal jobs, the majority are working in the shadows of the law, lacking contracts and social protection. To move from precariousness to security, we must master the rules of the game.
Employment Conditions and Contracts.
In the Nigerian labour market, a handshake is a start, but a contract is your shield. An employment contract is not just a formality. It is a legal requirement that must outline your job title, salary, hours, and the notice period required for termination. You must be vigilant against toxic clauses that attempt to strip away your rights, such as waiving overtime pay or allowing for employment at pleasure without notice.
While verbal agreements are technically binding, they are notoriously difficult to prove in a dispute. Therefore, a confirming email should always follow up verbal promises.
This vigilance extends to your payslip. Beyond your net pay, you must ensure your employer is fulfilling legal obligations under the Pension Reform Act 2014 by contributing 10% to your PFA while you contribute 8%. Similarly, deductions for PAYE tax should be verifiable with your Tax ID at the FIRS, and you should be enrolled under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to ensure you aren’t one illness away from financial ruin.
Employability Skills for the Nigerian Market.
Securing decent work requires more than a degree. It requires a specific set of survival skills tailored for the Nigerian economy. This begins with the 90-second pitch, where you must be able to articulate your value using the Present–Past–Future structure to show relevance to a recruiter.
Beyond communication, financial literacy is a critical safety net. For a worker earning ₦80,000, understanding the difference between saving and investing, or utilising cooperative societies and mobile apps like PiggyVest, can provide the stability that an employer might not offer.
Furthermore, as the platform economy grows, digital skills ranging from professional email etiquette and Google Workspace to specialised tools like Canva are no longer bonuses but requirements.
Whether you are navigating the risks of freelancing on Upwork or seeking a formal role, continuous learning through platforms like Coursera or Jobberman is essential to closing the skills gap that currently locks many youth out of better roles.
Pathways to Decent Work
There is no single road to a career, but there are verified maps you can follow. For those seeking formal employment, staying active on Jobberman, LinkedIn, and monitoring the Civil Service Commission portals remains the gold standard.
However, for the entrepreneurial-minded, the focus shifts to institutional support. Resources such as SMEDAN and the Bank of Industry (BOI) Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme provide the framework for self-employment that moves beyond survival hustling into structured business.
For many others, the path leads through the gig economy or government intervention programmes. While platforms like Uber offer immediate income and flexibility, they often lack benefits, making it crucial for young people to use these tools safely and profitably. Government-led initiatives like N-Power or the ITF apprenticeship model serve as vital bridges, providing the experience needed to transition into more permanent, decent work.
My Rights Action Plan
Knowledge without action is merely information. To truly benefit from understanding your rights, you must move into the Action Plan phase. This involves a cold assessment of your current reality: identifying exactly where your workplace falls short and what obstacles, be it a lack of experience or a fear of confrontation, are holding you back.
By setting a clear, 30-day goal, such as requesting a written copy of your terms of service or registering with a PFA, you turn theoretical rights into lived protections. The way forward is rarely a giant leap. It is a series of calculated choices and deadlines that ensure you are no longer a passive participant in your own career.
Collective Power & Youth Advocacy
Finally, we must recognise that a single worker is easily dismissed, but a collective voice is a force. This is the essence of trade unions like the NLC and TUC. For young workers, collective action is the most effective tool to end wage theft and fight for the extension of social security to the informal sector.
Advocacy is about making concrete demands, zero tolerance for sexual harassment, the inclusion of youth with disabilities in formal roles, and ensuring that every young worker, regardless of their sector, has a written contract. When we stand together, we move from being aware of the problem to becoming the solution.
Is Your Career Built on a Promise or on Paper?
For Funke, the lesson came at a high price: a locked office door and an empty bank account. Her story is a warning that in the Nigerian market, ‘family’ is not a legal status and a smile is not a severance package.
But today, the story changed.
Funke sat in a different room today, not one filled with empty promises of ‘family,’ but one filled with the clarity from the skills building workshop. As she walked out, she wasn’t just clutching a notepad; she was carrying a shield. She now knows that a handshake isn’t a hedge against hardship and that her value is defined by the law, not a boss’s smile.
Funke isn’t just a survivor of the Nigerian workplace anymore. She is a master of its rules. Her hard work will never be a ‘handshake’ again. Moving forward, she’s building on solid ground.
Do not wait for a crisis to realise you are unprotected. If you are working without a paper trail, you are not building a career. You are building on sand. Demand your contract, track your pensions, and master your skills today. Because in the end, the only person truly looking out for your future is you.
Don’t let your hard work become another handshake that leaves you empty-handed.
