By Emma Okonji
Bolt, a transportation platform in Africa, with operations in Nigeria and 29 other countries, has commenced fresh campaign for the safety of riders and drivers who are on its services.
To solidify the campaign, Bolt partnered YouVerify, a digital identity and verification technology company to develop a fully customised portal where drivers can request and check their verifications as part of the driver onboarding process.
The identity verification portal allows Bolt to conduct checks that were not available before, and is more comprehensive for the existing checks. For example, the home address verification provides higher levels of identity assurance than with previous model and BVN check in particular will help completely remove fraud and impersonation attempts. The verification results are received in real-time, which makes the turnaround time much faster.
All the driver has to do is initiate the verification request, provide all the information required and the portal verifies the driver’s home address, the driver’s documents and face, and verifies the BVN against the database of NIBSS to confirm their identity.
Conscious of security, the rider is able to match the identity of the driver with car model and plate number, as soon as the driver arrives for pickup.
Announcing the safety initiative at a press conference in Lagos recently,
Bolt’s City Manager for Lagos, Nigeria, Mr. Femi Akin-Laguda, said: “The safety of all our customers, both drivers and riders has always and will continue to be a cornerstone of our business strategy of building trust with all our customers. As safety is never done, over the last three years, we have been working very hard to continue improving the level of detail and robustness of our verification process in validating the identity of all individuals who wish to drive on Bolt.”
According to him, “We are very excited to announce that we have now partnered YouVerify, a leading identity aggregation technology company, to build an industry-leading self-serve driver verification portal which is the first of its kind to be rolled out in our market.
“This unique portal was developed in partnership with our supply operations team ensuring that it effectively meets our needs but is also not excessively intrusive for our driver-partners. The system will be driven by YouVerify’s proprietary identity verification technology, which provides the tools to validate various documentation and data and provide key requirements for an ideal verification solution that boosts both service quality and customer safety.”
CEO at YouVerify, Mr. Gbenga Odegbami, said: “Our partnership with Bolt to deploy the highest security and privacy standards will ensure that all verifications are done reliably and securely without compromising the privacy of the drivers.”
According to Akin-Laguda, the verification portal would be rolled out in stages, haven been already live in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and would be available across Nigeria in the coming months.
The driver verification portal is an addition to Bolt’s suite of safety features including an SOS button in the driver app, a 24-hour high-priority team, and the ability to share the details and route of an ongoing ride with loved ones.
