TECHDIGEST – SMEs have been charged to embrace business growth opportunities offered by digital identity and consumer analytics to scale their operations and unlock growth within the ecosystem.

Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer of VerifyMe Nigeria, Esigie Aguele, made the call while speaking as a special guest at the Fidelity SME Forum, a complementary SME-banking platform by Fidelity Bank aimed at building capacity and driving growth for entrepreneurs across Nigeria.

According to Aguele: “One of the biggest impediments to the growth of SMEs in the country has been the absence of a trust infrastructure that will stimulate sustainable growth within the space. This void not only hinders SME entrepreneurs from accessing financial and other services critical to their growth but also stifles their prospects of scaling due to the lack of credible consumer insights.

READ ALSO: No Plans To Strip NCC’s Powers, Says Pantami

“For example, VerifyMe’s B2B platform, QoreID, connects businesses to trusted identities and consumer analytics, enabling financial institutions like banks, fintechs, and credit lenders to provide loans to SMEs faster and more securely. Our Know Your Business (KYB) verification platform provides lenders with accurate reports on businesses so that these businesses can get assessed easily. We also give reports to our customers on those businesses.”

Continuing, he said: “VerifyMe can deploy our strong team of over 40,000 agents spread across the country to conduct Tier 3 account opening and business checks to ensure that SMEs can scale through the compliance hurdle, drive their eligibility, and access financial products. These are examples of how digital identity drives scale, compliance, and access to capital.

“One of the key deterrents to embracing KYC technology is the belief that the services are too pricey and way above the reach of most small businesses. However, that is far from correct. In fact, digital technology, and particularly, VerifyMe’s services, is at the forefront of crashing the price of conducting KYC in Nigeria.

When we entered the market, it used to cost N25,000 to verify people for account opening. We dropped that to N600. In addition to this, it costs only about N200-N300 for analytics on a loan of hundreds of thousands or even millions of naira.

So, we have ensured that the price is affordable for anybody across the board to use VerifyMe services.”

The post ‘How SMEs can leverage digital identity, consumer analytics for growth’ appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – A new study has revealed that less than 50% of Nigerians and only about 40% Africans have recognisable legal identity, whether digital or analogue – a major hurdle to the continent’s digital economy journey.

According to the report, ‘Digital ID in Nigeria: State of the Industry,’ by VerifyMe Nigeria Limited and partners, only “15% of Nigerians have both an e-ID card and a NIN (National Identity Number) while about 30% or 66 million have a NIN but not e-ID card8 (the physical token linked to the NIN).”

By implication, more than 100 million Nigerians and over 500 million Africans are outside a digital identity ecosystem and therefore unable to access any socioeconomic value via increased reach and inclusion. They are unable to access or perform digital services that include financial transactions, voting or even acquiring driving licence.

The report notes: “This means roughly 40% of the continent and 50% of the country, respectively, lack an integral enabler of benefits such as accessing a financial product, voting, or participating in online marketplaces.”

The report details the state of digital ID in Nigeria, offers insight on streamlining government and private sector relations, and makes a case for universal coverage.

“This is an independent report commissioned by VerifyMe and developed by Dalberg Advisors between July 2021 to November 2021. It represents a stock-taking of the state of and opportunities within the digital ID and eKYC industry in Nigeria and the beginning of what we hope will be a recurring assessment of progress and new developments year-on-year,” says Co-founder & CEO, VerifyMe Nigeria Limited, Esigie Aguele.

He adds: “This report examines digital identity systems in Nigeria and explores the role of digital identity as a critical and foundational enabler for a range of services and transactions, including financial services, social welfare programmes and government services.”

VerifyMe Nigeria is am identity verification and Know Your Customer (KYC) technology company while Dalberg Advisors, is a global consulting firm.

In his own contribution, Director General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz,says there is alredy considerable effort to imrpove enlistment of Nigerians into the digital ecosystem and to also provide integration and interoperability of databases across various agencies and departments.”

Dalberg states: “Nigeria’s digital economy is growing at a rapid pace, contributing significantly to national GDP and productivity. There are, however, barriers to full economic and social inclusion as well as factors that jeopardize the safety and security of the system at scale. Ensuring digital interactions are secure is paramount.”

The post Less Than 50% Of Nigerians, Africans Have Recognisable Legal IDs – Verifyme appeared first on Tech Digest News.