By Kayode Olopade
Friday Agbabule is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Fagbadex Global Information Services, a company that specializes in conducting background checks on foreign and local companies with a view to facilitating trade between Nigeria and foreign companies.
With over 25 years in the sector, Friday spoke on why foreign companies were not investing in Nigeria in the past and how his company has contributed to restoring the confidence of foreign investors in Nigeria’s economy.
How does the Information Services sector work?
We assist Nigeria's economy to grow in trade. When companies abroad want to do business with Nigerian companies, they contact us to help them do background checks on the company in Nigeria if such a company exists.
We check at the corporate affairs office to confirm if the company is registered. We visit the company physically to know if it exists at that address and is still functioning. After we write our report and send it to the company abroad, if they are convinced, they will go ahead and do business with them.
There are some companies that will be willing to provide information about themselves to us. Before we can make an inquiry about a company in Nigeria, there must be a trade relationship between the one in Nigeria and the one abroad. Our report forms an opinion for the foreign company whether to go ahead with the transaction or not.
All these we do to promote trade between Nigeria and foreign companies. We do employment checks on staff too before a company hires such an employee. We even go as far as going to the employee's hometown to ascertain his family and be sure he or she is genuine.
Your job relies so much on data. How will you rate database information in Nigeria?. Do you think Nigeria has enough data?
We do not have 100% data in Nigeria because of the bureaucracy in the system. It's a big challenge. Even the National Population Commission does not have the current population of Nigeria which is very ridiculous. Because of the sensitivity of our job, we don't allow third parties access to our findings without authorisation of our client.
Other challenges are inconsistency of information. We have cases where the Corporate Affairs Commission gives one registration number to two companies. The government is trying to see how we can have correct data of what we do in Nigeria, that's why we have NIN and BVN.
I want to advise the government if we can have a single digit identification as a unified number for everyone so that we can have only one ID card. It will be like a social security number. Once you slot the card into a machine, everything about you will be there. We don't have to be going around with different ID cards.
Over the years, what will.you say have been the volume of trade between Nigeria and foreign companies
During COVID-19, there was a drop in volume of international trade but a year after COVID-19, things started picking up. This year , between January and now, there has been an increase in the number of daily requests we get from foreign companies. There is a 100% increase. The business atmosphere is also calm now than before when there was no certainty. The dollar rate is stable now. Inflation analysis also shows that for the past few months, there has been no hike in fuel price so there's calm in the system. Foreign trade has increased. Traders can now calculate and plan their expenses based on stability in the system now
Will you say foreign companies now have more confidence doing transactions with Nigerian companies?
Yes, the confidence has increased. We have been in the business for 25 years and from experience, the confidence was not there in the past. One of the reasons is fear of the unknown. Some companies didn't know the business environment well. Our services play an important role in letting foreign companies know it's not all Nigerian companies that are involved in shady deals but there are good companies here that they can rely on.
Our services are still untapped in Nigeria because verification of businesses is very important. In Nigeria , we are just a few offering this service. Many people don't even know such services exist but abroad, there are many companies doing it.
Verification of businesses is the key to the success of a business because by the time you get information about a company or other parties get information about your company, they can have confidence in doing business with you.
You can even verify foreign companies too before doing business with them. It's a norm abroad but in Nigeria, people still don't know the information service sector exists to help do background checks before employing a staff or doing business with a company.
What are the good and sad moments for you on the job?
When we received our foreign partners, they told us there were some companies in Nigeria they sent money to but they disappeared and can't trace them. Because of this trend in the past, many foreign companies lost confidence in Nigerian companies.
On the good note, we have been able to rekindle foreign companies' confidence in coming to Nigeria to invest.
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