In this exclusive interview with Nairametrics, Esigie Aguele, the Chief Executive Officer of VerifyMe Nigeria disclosed that the transaction cost of address verification has dropped by 300% in Nigeria.
Aguele attributes the development to the advent of technology imbibed to create a safer environment in the country.
According to VerifyMe, it currently has over 35 deposit banks, 50 credit lenders, 12 of the top insurance companies and over 150 other businesses leveraging the company’s APIs and addressing platform to grow their businesses. Excerpts:
You had a comfortable life working as a senior manager for a technology company in Washington, DC. After spending almost two decades in the US, why did you return to Nigeria?
I was inspired to come back to Nigeria because I want to take my country back. I felt the expertise I gained in the States would have more impact at home. The society there was more developed, and whatever solution or idea you could come up with was probably already done. In Nigeria, I felt I could bring my experience and knowledge to provide a solution that would help build the economy.
You have worked with some security agencies since you returned to Nigeria, what has been your experiences compared to their counterparts?
To be specific, we work with the police force. It has been a great experience collaborating with them to leverage digitization to enhance the security infrastructure. Particularly in Lagos State, I can tell you that there’s a digital drive and very motivated people who understand the national security angle. and the fact that digitization is the only way forward. It’s been a positive experience and we have been able to move forward on our plans for integration and digitization.
Address verification or background check has always been a major challenge in Nigeria. How would you assess that segment in Nigeria?
I think it’s a critical segment if you look at it from a compliance perspective or even from an eKYC angle. Since our entry into the Nigerian market, VeriFind, our product that speaks to address verification, has lowered transaction costs by over 300%. We have been able to do this by leveraging proprietary technology and our robust agent network to gain economies of scale and pass savings on to our customers.
How has that product fared in the market?
VeriFind processed over 200,000 Tier III address verifications in 2021 only and this is in addition to over 600,000 4D Geographic Information System (GIS) checks using customers’ smartphones. The beautiful thing about VeriFind is that it automates real-time addressing using GPS technology to provide quality location information services to fintechs and payment customers.
Its unique infrastructure enables tiered addressing options from real-time 4D GIS calls to Tier III compliant last-mile addressing within the same workflow and depending on the customer’s scenario. VeriFind is the first and only infrastructure that combines a licensed identity verification platform with Tier III compliant addressing and real-time 4D GIS location intelligence features for cheaper, faster, quality verifications and for product recovery.
We are excited to note the great strides VeriFind is making in solving the problem of easily and accurately verifying and authenticating locations on given addresses even when they are non-standardized. This is solving the problem of allowing our customers to onboard customers and open either Tier III or other account types with speed.
Are there other areas you are not doing enough, and any intention to go out of the shores of Nigeria?
We are always looking for the next best thing, the next best product, the next most efficient product and the next most innovative product for our customers. And that could mean either improved versions of existing products or introducing new products altogether.
To be clear, we are nowhere close to covering the Nigerian landscape. We don’t believe that we have done everything that needs to be done and that’s why we keep pushing. We recently invested in a fantastic data science team that’s going to help us build great financial products that can bring more accurate and unique profiling solutions for our customers so that they can feel more secure when providing services.
In terms of expanding across Africa, I would say that we are strategically approaching other key regions and we will be announcing some major moves very soon.
In 2020, nations, employees, and employers learnt several lessons due to COVID-19. What were the lessons Verifyme learnt from the pandemic?
Honestly, the first lesson, is that you must close your raise while you can. We were dragging our feet and then and COVID happened, and it delayed things for a year. So, I think that was one lesson for me.
Another positive lesson for me is the way the team just came together during the COVID pandemic. It really inspired me, even though we were doing quite a bit of address verification at the time and our ID verification ecosystem wasn’t so robust. Our revenue at some point really went down about 70%, so it was a really tough time for us in 2020. But what really happened is that we were able to pull together because we are financially prudent as a company and have always remained so.
What was more important was that we signed 20 banks in 2020 alone. And since 2020, we’ve literally signed almost about 30 banks, completing their integration. We have many more in the pipeline. And so all these customers and everyday microfinance banks, insurance companies, we just had people calling and calling and so, we knew at that point that this B to B to C business is about to explode as a result of COVID.
How do you handle competitions?
We handle competition by being the best. What I say when people ask me how we are different, I say the truth is we are different in two ways; we have the best technology and we are also compliant as a service because we check all the boxes of licensing. So, our technology is the best and this is why we’ve always been at the forefront of really selling products. We are the first to do address verification over API, the first to do car inspections and home inspections over API.
Are there intentions of listing on the Stock Exchange in Nigeria?
That’s a good one. I’m not sure the board will talk about it but I will talk about it with the board. I don’t think we are there yet, we’re always open to and having conversations. But it’s not a question I can comment on at this time. But yes, we’re always open to conversations.
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