The Problem Every Operator Knows

If you run a business, you already know what it feels like to let someone in and hope for the best. It might be a new rider picking up a delivery, a tenant coming to view a property, a guest checking into your shortlet, or a field agent being onboarded to represent your business across three states. 

In almost every one of these situations, the decision is made based on a name, a phone number, and maybe a WhatsApp photo of an ID,  that anyone could have sent, the kind of thing that passes as identity verification in most businesses today.

The uncomfortable truth is that identity fraud does not announce itself. It does not come with warning signs or a suspicious look. It arrives as a perfectly normal interaction, and it only becomes visible after the damage has already been done. After the package disappears. After the property is damaged. After the agent you deployed turns out to be someone entirely different from who they said they were.

The Gap We Kept Seeing

We have been building identity infrastructure at Dojah for years, and thousands of businesses across Africa use our API to verify who their customers are. Banks, fintechs, telcos, digital platforms, they plug into our system, their developers build the verification flow, and it works exactly the way it should.

But the more we spoke to people running businesses on the ground, the more clearly we could see a gap we were not filling. Every hotel manager, logistics company, shortlet operator, and property manager we talked to understood the problem. They knew they needed to verify the people they were dealing with. What they didn't have was a developer to build an integration, or the time to wait for one. So they were doing what most businesses do when there is no better option:

• Taking a picture of someone's ID
• Calling a reference
• Trusting their instincts

None of that actually tells you whether the document is real, whether the face matches, or whether the person in front of you is who they claim to be. We decided that the gap needed to be closed.

What is Checkin by Dojah, and how does it work?

Checkin is a no-code identity verification product built specifically for Nigerian businesses that need to verify people without a technical team. It runs on the same infrastructure powering Dojah's API — so the checks are real, government-backed, and just as rigorous.

The difference is that none of it requires writing a single line of code. Here's the full workflow:

1. Create your verification flow in ~2 minutes: Choose which checks to run — document, selfie, liveness, AML screening. No developer needed.
2. Send a link via WhatsApp or SMS: Your customer or agent receives a link. No app download. No account creation. Works on any smartphone.
3. They complete the check on their phone: Government ID capture, selfie, liveness detection — all done in under 90 seconds on their end.
4. You get an instant result: Pass, Flag, or Fail: With a full breakdown of what was checked and a trust score from 0–100. Records stored securely on your dashboard.

What Checkin actually verifies — the checks under the hood

Because Checkin runs on Dojah's core infrastructure, every verification includes real, government-backed checks, not just a visual scan of an ID photo.

1. Government ID verification: NIN, BVN, driver's licence, international passport — validated against government databases.
2.  Selfie & liveness detection: Confirms the person is physically present — not a photo, video replay, or deepfake.
3. Document capture & verification: Extracts and validates data from physical ID documents with tamper detection.
4. AML watchlist screening: Screens against global sanctions lists, PEP databases, and adverse media sources.
5. Trust score (0–100): A single concrete number that aggregates all checks so you can make a faster, more confident decision.
6. Secure dashboard record: Every verification is stored with full audit trail — searchable and retrievable at any time.

Which Nigerian businesses need no-code identity verification?

What all of these situations have in common is a single moment where a business has to decide whether to proceed with someone they have not properly verified. That moment is where things go wrong. Checkin was built specifically for that moment. It is for:

Checkin vs manual identity verification: why WhatsApp ID checks aren't enough

A WhatsApp photo of an ID can be photoshopped. A reference call tells you nothing about whether the ID is authentic. And trusting your instincts scales to exactly one person, the person doing the checking.

Checkin runs the checks that a human physically cannot: it validates the ID against a government database in real time, confirms the face in the selfie matches the face on the document, detects whether that selfie is a live person or a photo being held up to a camera, and cross-references the individual against global sanctions lists — all in under two minutes.

The difference that matters: A WhatsApp ID check tells you what someone handed you. Checkin tells you whether what they handed you is real, and whether the person holding it is who they say they are.

Get Started With CheckIn

CheckIn is live in Nigeria today, and if you are a business operator who needs to know who you are dealing with before anything happens, you can get started at checkin.dojah.io, free to set up, no credit card required.

If you are a developer or technical team looking to build verification directly into your product, Dojah's API remains the right tool for that. Checkin and Dojah are built for different buyers but sit on the same foundation, and for both, the goal is the same.

Know exactly who you are letting in.

Frequently asked questions about identity verification in Nigeria

1. Do I need a developer or technical team to use Checkin?

No. Checkin is built specifically for businesses without a technical team. You create your verification flow in the dashboard, generate a link, and send it via WhatsApp or SMS. No code, no integration, no developer required.

2. What IDs can Checkin verify in Nigeria?

Checkin verifies NIN (National Identification Number), BVN (Bank Verification Number), driver's licence, voter's card, and international passport — all validated in real time against government databases.

3. Does the person being verified need to download an app?

No. The entire verification happens in a mobile browser via a link. The person receives the link on WhatsApp or SMS, completes the checks on their phone, and you receive the result — no app download required on either side.

4. How is Checkin different from Dojah's API?

Dojah's API is for developers and technical teams who want to embed identity verification directly into their product. Checkin is for business operators who need the same rigorous checks without any integration work. Both run on the same verification infrastructure.

5. How much does Checkin cost?

Checkin is free to set up, no credit card required. You pay per verification as you go. Visit https://checkin.dojah.io/#pricing for current rates.

6. Is Checkin available outside Nigeria?

Checkin is live in Nigeria today. International expansion is on the roadmap. If you operate in another African market, contact the Dojah sales team to discuss your options.