The security of lives and properties remains a key issue for any government of the day, however, getting to prevent security challenges common around the populace can be achieved by leveraging innovation.
To be security conscious either as an organization or individual, one factor that stands out is the ability to make a successful verification.
However, with technology, making background verification while implementing a guaranteed surveillance and tracking systems offers solutions to the challenges faced by many organizations with respect to security.
Today a significant number of people are engaging in online businesses owing to the availability of IT tools. In this case, the issue of trust arises, whereby customers see items online and obtain different orders from their suppliers.
Also in a time, when Nigeria is taking on a lot of verification processes to combat the spate of insecurity in the country, SECLOT Technology Limited a Lagos-based Startup has launched a service that will help Nigerians in verifying addresses of businesses, staff members and prospective job applicants.
In a chat with Olawale Atekoja, Co-founder of SECLOT, we learnt how the indigenous technology company is enabling security verification for Nigerians.
Taking us through a brief about the startup, Olawale stated that the security-oriented company deals with both online and physical security that enable corporate organizations and individuals to verify addresses of their clients, staff, job applicants and suppliers.
Olawale who is also Supernumerary Superintendent with the Nigerian Police Force(NPF) said that the vision of SECLOT (Security for the LOT) is become the leading provider of technology-driven security solutions in Nigeria and Africa, while stating that its mission is to offer creative security solutions leveraging technology.
With his background in Computer Science (first degree) and Software Engineering (second degree), the startup was founded in 2018 to provide technology-driven solutions in the security space.
Olawale wrote his first software code as an intern in 2005 and he was part of the team that built the Lagos State Waste Management System.
In 2019, he started his career as a junior software developer and rose to the position of senior software developer (team lead) for a software development company before resigning in 2017.
How SECLOT works
According to Olawale, while considering the numerous challenges in the security space, SECLOT is set to build different verticals of the security space.
The Co-founder explained that as of now, the tech company has 3 major verticals it is working on, which are Vetting, Surveillance and Tracking.
However, in this chat, Olawale addressed the Vetting (Address and skills verification) part of the startup’s solution.
He explained that considering COVID-19, there has been an increase in the adoption of online transactions, a lot of individuals and organizations are beginning to check and pay for goods online.
According to Olawale, this development led to the following:
Increased cases of skills fraud
For example, I had a female friend in UK that outsourced her wedding gown to a Nigerian fashion designer based on the pictures she saw on the website. On getting to Nigeria, she had to buy a new wedding gown off the shelf a day to the wedding.
Increased cases of online financial frauds
Some people do not even get to see their item talkless of complaining whether it’s good or not, online vendors collect money from customers and do not render the service.
Inability to track the fraudster location
For those that don’t get their items, it’s difficult tracking the online vendors as most of them put fake addresses or the addresses cannot easily be found considering the address numbering system in Nigeria.
To solve this, the startup built a web platform that allows users to upload details of vendors they want to vet while the solution vets and upload the result sheet back to the platform.
It works through these steps:
- User uploads personal details and also details of the vendor to vet on our platform
- The user pays N1,000 to carry out the verification
- A visit to the vendor’s address without prior notification
- SECLOT takes photo, video and geolocation of vendor address
- Also photo and video of vendor sample products and workforce
- Issuing of Seclot ID(Vetting valid for only 3 months) to vendor
NB: According to Olawale, users are also vetted before vetting their vendors.
SECLOT’s journey
“Success is usually not as fast as you think, always ensure you have a sustainability plan. The first 5 years of your startup is to build not to be rich.”, Olawale commented
SECLOT currently operates in 10 major cities in Nigeria and has carried out over 1,500 verifications to date.
The startup has deployed its vetting solution to corporate organizations such as Parkit.Ng, Reposebay, ET Logistics Limited (Everything Tacha from the Big Brother Housemate), Hail Logistics to mention a few.
The startup has also performed domestic vetting jobs in many parts of the country such as Lagos, Benin and most recently Abuja, the federal capital.
For vetting, the mission of the startup is to build the footprints of Nigerians for the world and by 2030, it hopes to have verified over 100 million Nigerian addresses.
Founder Institute experience
Relaying his experience with the Silicon Valley-based Accelerator program, Olawale commented, “The Future of Nigeria’s success is entrepreneurship, FI is one of those vehicles in achieving it”.
According to him, he has benefitted 3 basic things from joining the Founder Institute
- Knowledge – You get the best practices on how to run your startup.
- Exposure – You are put in the limelight and customer-facing
- Network – You get to meet like minds that help you believe in yourself and dreams.
Bottomline
The startup is rolling out its vetting service in all 36 states of the country, by December 2021, Nigerians would be able to vet all capital cities in the country at just N1,000 irrespective of where they in the world.
Also, its vetting services would not just be for humans, according to the Co-founder, the startup we would roll out vetting services for houses (Imagine you are abroad and building a house in Nigeria).
The startup hasn’t received any external funding and hopes in securing investment to further enhance its verification process for security in Nigeria.
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