Online Portal for Hiring of Domestic Staff Goes Live

An innovative online platform created out of a need to provide verifiable, vetted and reliable domestic staff to the Nigerians has been launched, www.maidinnigeria.com.ng.

The platform aims to provide security and peace of mind for those hiring domestic workers, as well as end to end transparency in the process of hiring domestic workers.
 
According to Chinedu Okoli, managing director, Novatia Technology, “due to the busy lifestyle of the average Nigerian, we are increasingly dependent on a little extra support to ensure we can continue grow our careers, while being able to support our families. We do not provide the domestic staff ourselves, but provide the technology platform through which vetted domestic staff can be sourced. The vetting is done independently of Maid in Nigeria, and as such we highly recommend that anyone sourcing domestic staff through our portal ensures that all the information provided for the said domestic staff checks out”.

He noted that in this day and age, the need to use the services of agents in sourcing of domestic help is essential, and that they believe that a little more can be done to provide a level of comfort and assurance in the process of sourcing this most essential of services.
 
The basic features of the service include, Bio-data (including pictures), guarantor information, Indemnity insurance, previous employment references, background checks, and medical report

for all domestic servants (house helps, stewards, drivers, security men, etc.) offered through the Maid-In-Nigeria platform will be made available through the portal and Mobile App. Such medical tests reports will have a maximum validity of 6 months.
 
He noted that a prospective employer can ‘see before he/she buys’, enabling the employer to make an informed decision. The available information, from bio-data of the prospective worker, to medical and background reports, enables them to gain a better appreciation of the person coming into their home to look after them/their children. “ This is very important. Presently, people do this on a ‘wing and prayer’, and horror stories abound”.
 
“We also want to provide peace of mind by way of the innovative domestic worker indemnity insurance product, which can cover for damages, theft, etc. We are working with our insurance partners on this innovative product, which will add to the level of comfort provide to employers. We are talking about a minimum cover of N100,000, which of course can be increased by the employer. This is a product that never existed before now.
 
“Additionally, we have partnered with a number of renowned medical diagnostic labs to provide verifiable medical reports for domestic workers. Each report will have a maximum validity of 6 months, after which the prospective worker must be re-tested to remain valid on the portable, if they are still unemployed. The reports will cover common infectious diseases such as hepatitis, HIV and tuberculosis, as well as pregnancy tests for female prospective domestic workers.”
 
Okoli said that: “One of things we also wanted to clean up through this solution is the issue of worker/agent exploitation or under-age workers. So we have a policy that the minimum age for a worker to be listed on our portal is 16 years of age, the legal working age in Nigeria, and the workers’ salaries and agents’ fees are declared upfront, so there are no surprises. Agents have complained about exploitation by prospective employers, both of the workers and their agents, when it comes to paying them their due salaries and fees. When you do a search on the portal or app, the results you get will also include this information for the prospective workers and their agents, as well as available vetting information. The prospective employer can then choose who he wants to interview, after which the hiring process is completed through our platform.”