‘Digital identity verification is solution to cybercrime, fraudulent acts’

Mr. Kola Olugbodi is the Managing Director of Background Check International (BCI). He is an author and a graduate of Demography and Statistics from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Osun State. He spoke on the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in national development as well as EduCheck, a new digital identity product from the company. ENO BASSEY reports

What dynamism has Information and communications Technology brought to corporate organisations?
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has changed the way things were being done completely. We have totally moved away from analog to the digital age. It is like you either innovate or die.

For instance, we used to queue up in banks but suddenly, we now do transactions online. Banking transactions now take less time than what it used to be. One can see the enormous progress in the banking sector. The same thing applies to other sectors of the economy. It is also obvious now that Post Offices now getting redundant due to the use of emails in sending messages. These are some of the disruptions and if there is anything that has been in strong operation, it is the IT revolution. We are in the industrial revolution age. What has happened in the last 20 years cannot be compared with the last 40 years. That is the way ICT has affected the corporate world.

Your company recently improved on a digital service launched years back. What is the service all about?
EduCheck is an online platform that BCI developed to make verification easy for anyone around the world. It is a verification hub. It is positioned that any manner of verification can be done instantly. Whether it is to verify an educational certificate or verify information about a prospective employee. It can be done from anywhere in the world. If a Nigerian is overseas with business interests in property investment, EduCheck could help to verify the property and other information associated with same. An alumnus of an institution can also obtain his certificate through EduCheck.

What is the future for digital identity and documentation in Nigeria?
These specialised services are just evolving in Nigeria. Some of the services are what National Identification Number (NIN) and Bank Verification Number (BVN) offer presently. In BCI, we don’t only gather data for identity, we also authenticate the identity. You must verify claims before you venture into business investment. We verify identity through all our services in Background Check International.

The future is the way the entire world is today, as everything has been digitalised. It is imperative to say that everyone needs digital identity and be online at all times. In this age of cybercrime, digital identity is the solution to unravel such fraudulent acts.

Digital identity is the way to go as people buy items and services online. Online identity is important, as your identity needs to be verified when transacting business. It should also be noted that there could be identity theft as a result of digital operations but people just need to protect their information and be cautious of what they do online.