Corporate organizations should embrace background check to eliminate sharp practices, fraud- MD, BCI, Kola Olugbodi
Managing Director of Background Check International,BCI, Kola Olugbodi
Kola Olugbodi,The Managing Director of Background Check International,BCI the pioneer of the Background check Industry in Nigeria says Corporate Organizations should entrench background check into their operations.
Olugbodi , whose company clocked 20 years recently also canvassed for government collaboration with stakeholders in the industry.
THE BEGINNING
Background Check International pioneered the industry and we started, it was an uphill task to get people to embrace the service.There was no awareness about the service and organizations did not see it as key tool to support their operations.
There is was no awareness and BCI has been able to create huge awareness and the adoption of background Check by organizations. Every sector of the economy have adopted background Check as a means to curtail fraudulent claims.
At inception, it was only employment screening but we have several services such as tenant background check, vendors background check, domestic background check, pensioners verification,spouse check ad several others.
Our belief from the beginning is that wherever human services are needed, background check is important.
ENGENDERING GROWTH IN THE INDUSTRY
The society for Professional Background Check was registered and inagurated in 2019 and this shows the industry is growing when you have over 12 companies thereabout are operating.
The SPBS was established to ensure self regulation to enable stakeholders adhere to global standard.The body was also formed to create awareness for the Industry and also educate corporate members and their staff.
SPBS also looked into avenues to collaborate to grow the industry .The presence of professionals also shows quacks may exist and as a result,regulations and measures are put in place for curb unprofessional and sharp practices.
All these are ways to instill public confidence and ensure sanity in the industry.We sell trust to the clients and we must promote trust as professional services providers.
It is also important to ensure that the industry is not infiltrated by quacks and fraudulent people .
CONTRIBUTIONS OF BACKGROUND CHECK INTERNTIONAL
The Contribution of BCI in the last 20 years of its existence has been enormous.The first one is by the way of privilege to pioneer the industry in Nigeria.This places the company in the leadership role and we provide leadership to others.For BCI to have over 3,000 clients across Al the sectors of the economy is an humble achievement for us.We continue to provide services beyond the shores of Nigeria.
We started with only employment screening and we have since diversified into other areas of due diligence services.
We had to develop various products and services to expand our service portfolio.
Our major contribution is creating trust in view of our large clientele.
We have also been able to reduce workplace fraud as this is one of the major objectives of establishing BCI.
IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The introduction of information technology has improved our turnaround time .BCI keeps adopting cutting edge technology to remain ahead.
Information technology makes the job easier on a daily basis for us
Information technology plays a key role and an increase in its usage holds the ace for the Future.Background check involves a lot of data collation and analysis and making concrete decisions.Technology will definitely influence the operations of the Industry as cloud computing is now the main operations .
Technology will also increase cyber security in the industry.This will checkmate cybercrime mitigating processes and procedures that may also increase.
GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS AND SUPPORT ARE NEEDED
To increase the drive ad sustenace for background check in Nigeria, government agencies must embrace the service.This has become important because government agencies must conduct due diligence checks on their staff .
Moreover , government needs to embrace technology in most institutions that warehouse data.Most of the data in these agencies are still raw but they need to be digitalised.This will.make background check easier as we have to go through archival records before obtaining Information.
Government need to also involve private ad uncompromised background check professionals to verify the clams of the pension scheme.This will eliminate fraud and bring sanity to the system.
The claims of contractors can also be verified by government especially when huge sums of money were paid and projects remained abandoned.
Government should also make legislations and policies for all organizations and Individuals to embrace background check.This will reduce criminality and fraud in the system.
