Digital identity, consumer analytics to grow Nigeria's SME space - VerifyMe CEO

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.

Esigie Aguele, Co-founder/chief executive officer, of VerifyMe Nigeria, made the call while speaking as a special guest on 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.

“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.”

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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.”

VerifyMe is a digital identity and KYC technology company and was voted as a Notable Ecosystem Champion in Nigeria in the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report 2021.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.