LagosMums Interviews Olutunji Oluwole Chief Responsibility Officer And Founder Of VerifyMe Nigeria.
1. Introduce yourself
My name is Olutunji Oluwole, Chief Responsibility Officer & Founder of VerifyMe Nigeria
2. What is VerifyMe Nigeria?
VerifyMe Nigeria is an employment history reporting and verification company. We are an IT company that has created a unique solution to redefine the African workforce starting with Nigeria. Our solution enables employers make informed hiring decision. It promotes transparency and makes workers more accountable across all sectors in the employment space. We offer employment history reporting and verification services such as
Identity, Address and Guarantor verification using our solution employers can verify their workers at the click of a button. We also offer address verification services for KYC (Banks). We have created solutions that allows employers and banks focus on their core business objectives and deliver quality services.
 3. Why did you start it?
VerifyMe was born out of a personal experience when my family and I moved back to Nigeria. We hired a cook and my wife being very meticulous conducted all background checks and it came back fine. Within two weeks of his employment, the cook poisoned my family and I. We were air-ambulanced out of the country and my only son almost lost his life. In addition, the cook we hired robbed us and disappeared.
I came back to Nigeria and reported the case to the law enforcements. Â As a result, the incident eventually became breaking news in my estate. Afterwards, Â it was reported that he was seen working in the same estate but in another residence. I went to his new place of employment with law enforcement but the house help who opened the gate said there was no Francis in the house. Apparently, he had changed his name to Joseph. Â Long story short, I went back to the house to arrest the cook and explain to the owners of the house why I brought law enforcement.
It turned out that the cook had also attempted the same act with the aid of the house help but was unsuccessful twice. Most noteworthy, I sat in their living room while I watched the house help, an accessory to attempted murder, walk out of their home into another home or another business leaving no trace or history of her past employment. This gave birth to VerifyMe Nigeria.
4. Who does VerifyMe Nigeria Benefit?
All employers of labour, decision makers and recruiters across all sectors in the workforce.
5. What are some of the top mistakes employers make when hiring domestic staff?
Some major mistakes employers make when hiring are: assumption that age is a factor that determines if the individual is going to be problematic. Age has absolutely nothing to do with the evil thoughts that radiate amongst the human mind. Also, assumption that for a domestic staff to be from neighbouring countries, there’s no point stressing or it’s impossible to carry out verification. Hence, VerifyMe covers all these assumptions with tangible services offered to mitigate them.
6. How can people sign up or use your service. How does it all work?
To sign up, all you need to do is visit the website
As an employer,once you signup, an employer code is sent to you. In essence, this  code is what your employees would use to self-capture verify. It means as your employees’ sign up  on our platform, using the provided code ties them to you and they appear as pending in your account. So, to on-board them, you pay for the verification service you are interested in. Some of the available ones being: Work History Verification/Reporting, Identity, Address, Guarantor, Certificate, etc.
7. Can you share testimonials of people who have been saved from fraudulent employees thanks to VerifyMe Nigeria?
“I am the CEO of a company in Nigeria, the payroll sent to me every month by the HR unit says l have 756 workers and salaries were disburse accordingly. Thanks to Verify Me after I used their solution, the report showed that I only have 741 workers that exist and the rest were ghost workers. Apparently, a few of the members of my staff organised  the crime.”
…CEO, Industrial Company
” My family and I moved to Nigeria and within a month, we engaged a cook. All verification carried out reported his background as clean, one night after dinner, my family and I became unconscious taken out of the country for resuscitation. After I recovered, I returned to Nigeria only to discover that our cook poisoned us and his motive was robbery. I wish I had used VerifyMe Nigeria’s Services at the time.”
…Anonymous, Victoria Garden City Resident
” My driver was sent to capture his details and get verified but he refused because he said capturing his fingerprints was against his culture, after issuing threats he finally agreed and thanks to VMN it was revealed that he had stolen N100, 000 from his previous employer”
…Parkview Resident
8. What are your plans for the future?
The future plan for VerifyMe is to cover the employment verification space in Africa
9. The festive season has come and gone, many staff go home and don’t come back, or when employers change staff – what should they look out for?
Several workers go to their respective homes for the festive season. On returning, it is advisable for Employers to be very observant and security conscious as a number of them go and come back with devious plans and mind-set to carry out negative actions. It might be hard for an employer to know for sure who is who, but as our slogan is, Trust and Verify.
10. Many people still do not think it is necessary to check the background of their staff – what do you have to say to them?
VerifyMe was born out of a personal experience. My direct contact with the almost fatal incident of my cook poisoning my family and I was the major cause for the birth of VerifyMe.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where the general belief is that ‘Experience is the best teacher’. VerifyMe is here to correct that notion. We have experienced the negative effect of not having your staff verified, rather, let us help you guard against such occurrences at the barest minimum cost to you. And like we always preach, regardless of how much trust you have in one, always Trust and Verify…
11. You have been around for a few years now – can you share some of the trends you have found in the market?
Prior to our emergence on the scene, the standard practice was for employers and recruitment agencies to screen workers based on information supplied by the workers themselves.
This creates a credibility gap, as people will naturally proffer information that benefits their interests. As a result, insightful data is lost along the way, which the employer and sometimes even the worker, eventually pays for in unpleasant circumstances.
Therefore, we deploy cutting edge technology to provide reporting insights to enable employers of labour make informed hiring decisions. Our innovative solution captures, compiles and maintains a unique and secure identity verification of each worker on the database so employers are reasonably sure of the identity of who they employ into their organisations and homes. It also ensures that they have access to the comprehensive work history of their employees on demand. In addition, our portal leverages on government data points for unified identity verification and all our biometric devices meet international standards for collecting and maintaining biometric data.
Read [Tips on How To Hire Domestic Staff]
