Describing it as an imaginary ‘’sports’ target which leaves the business unprofitable” to agents, one of the agents, who spoke on condition of anonymity said the new policy was like “monkey dey work baboon dey chop.”
The PUNCH gathered that, by the said policy, which took effect in January, 2023, agents are expected to turn in sales of N150,000 on ‘sports’ product, to get N30,000 bonus, of which some of them claimed was not like that before.
“It is an imaginary sports target as a requisite to get a weekly bonus, and it leaves us (agents) hopeless.
“It’s disheartening and also an inconsiderable decision for a company to take up this policy on her agents in these trying times despite the harsh economy where agents in rural areas barely make good sales since there are online competitors.
“The commission given to agents is not enough to sustain the business at all. We rely actually on the bonus but now they have systemically scrapped it. This would mean doom for agents across the country in the coming days,” the agent said in a chat with our correspondent.
“Last week, I made sales worth N800,000 on other products, but on sport, I was not able to get anything, the sales was not up to the N150,000 (required to get N30,000). So it means I won’t get any bonus, all my efforts wasted, even despite making sales of N800,000 on other products,” an agent who spoke on condition of anonymity lamented.
“Sports target is the toughest to meet. Low sales have been a major problem since the economy has not been friendly to customers. It might cause half of the shops to get locked in coming weeks.
“The policy the betting company introduced was that agents would lose incentives if they don’t meet up with sports.
“We urge the company to kindly revert this policy to make agents focus on the business, rather than stylishly pushing them away. Is this a style to scrap agents? They should come out straight to tell us,” another agent who also spoke on condition of anonymity told The PUNCH in a phone conversation.
When contacted on Tuesday, the Agency Manager of the company, identified simply as Mr Akin, could not make comments on the matter, as he said he was not designated to speak with the press.
He provided our correspondent with the contact of the External Communications Manager of the company, who said he didn’t know why the policy concerned a newspaper.
“So how does this concern The PUNCH? I’m lost. I am genuinely struggling as to how a company policy that affects the agent of that company affects a national newspaper. I’m not reacting, I just want to know how a private company’s policy to a private agent is national news,” the communications manager who refused to give his name said before hanging up.
However, a ‘Super Agent’, an agent with a senior title in Oyo State, Mr Adedeji Olayiwola, said the company changed the bonus policy not the commission.
“I am an agent too, I am not one of the management. When we approached the company about the bonus policy, they told us, ‘Have we tried the new policy they gave us? That by the time we try it, if we see how it works out, we can now know where to adjust. But a lot of agents are not patient enough,” he said.
“They had to reduce virtual and ball game targets; they now said both should be combined together, that if you are meeting up on ball game, and you don’t meet up on virtual, you’re not going to collect anything. But if you meet up on both, you will collect your bonus which is N30,000. Then at the end of the day, in the fourth week, they will even double the money,” he added.
He maintained that when they (Super agents) complained to the company that some agents might not meet both targets, “they said they have reduced the targets for ball game and virtual, and that, now that they have reduced it, ‘have we tried it?’ This is the first week, we’ve tried the first week. I called some agents and they said they met the target, some said they did not meet up.
Mr Olayiwola maintained that the policy should be observed in two or three weeks to know the way forward.
