EXCLUSIVE: Sophia Nigeria Limited Sacks 5,000 Workers, Cites Economic Challenges

Sophia Nigeria Limited, makers of X-Pression hair attachments has sacked over five thousand (5000), of its workers.

The hair company had on Friday issued the memo of the contract termination to its staff informing them that effective from October 31, 2019, their contract with the company would be terminated.

According to the memo made available to ekohotblog.com, the company said that the reason for the termination was due to restructuring and downsizing of its workforce as a result of the harsh economic realities in the country.

Ekohotblog.com gathered that the over five thousand affected workforce were all recruited by an outsourcing company, Almalya Consult, for Sophia Nigeria Limited.

It was also gathered that about two months ago, that the Mushin factory of Linda Nigeria Limited, a joint owner of the X-Pression brand, stopped operation, a move that affected over 3000 thousand workers.

Some of the affected workers of Linda Nigeria Limited were moved to the Iju Road, Agege factory to continue working for X-Pression hair attachments as workers under Sophia Nigeria Limited.

A visit by ekohotblog.com to the Sophia Nigeria Limited at its Iju Road factory, revealed that workers were downcast as result of the termination of their contract. The development however, meant that the sacked workers would have to join millions of other Nigerians who are currently unemployed.

Some of the workers who spoke to ekohotblog.com expressed disappointment at the development.

According to one of the affected factory workers in charge of machine operation simply identified as Emmanuel, noted that the sack was coming at a wrong time.

He said, “This is not fair to us at all. We have been hearing rumours of such but we didn’t take it serious. Last week, we were told to embark on a technical leave on Wednesday, October 2 and we only resumed on October 9, which was on Wednesday. Two days later, we came to work and saw the memo that we are to quit work at the end of this month. There was no prior notice or anything like that.”

“Some of us have got families to feed. Some just paid school fees of their kids. Some have their house rent due in few months. Christmas is approaching. How do we feed our families? This is just not fair on us,” he lamented.

Another worker, who was simply identified as Cynthia, was all in tears as she lamented that she was due to cash out from the voluntary contribution she was into with some other workers.

“I am into a monthly contribution of ten thousand naira and it is my turn to collect this October. We are twelve and that’s a total of one hundred and twenty thousand naira. The twelve of us started in January and now that we are told to leave by October, I don’t see how I can collect my one hundred and twenty thousand is full,” she said.

Other workers declined to speak with ekohotblog.com as most the workers were in a sad mood.

When ekohotblog.com reached out to the management of the company comment on the issue, the supervisor met on ground declined to comment.

A copy of the termination memo

Meanwhile, ekohotblog.com also visited the office of Amalya Consults at Tunji Adebayo Street, Fagba bus stop, Lagos, discovered that the office was locked.

Ekohotblog.com however tracked down a former employee of the outsourcing company who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The source revealsd that they had been informed in September that their contract has been terminated and all workers they recruited for the company would be sacked by end of October .

He said, “My company recruits workers for X-Pression and we have been doing that for a long time. However, around early September, they told us to stop recruitment that they are finding it difficult to cope because of the economic situation in the country.”

“Since there was no more job for our company, my boss sacked us too. I have been home since September, trying to find another job. Sophia could have informed those workers at the same time they informed us,” he added.

Some of the brands under X-Pression hair are Yaki Flip, Daniela, Lagos Braid, Funky, Active, Diva amongst others.

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