Clinton Obong’o of Background Check says he saved from his ‘small jobs’ while studying with eyes focused on starting own enterprise.
While the bulk of university and college students wait until they graduate to look for the hard-to-get jobs, Clinton Lagoon Obong’o went against the grain.
Mr Obong’o decided to work for someone only when studying, but visualised a life of entrepreneurship once he graduated. That’s how he aggressively looked for “small jobs” as a student, saved what he could, and left university with eyes focused on starting own enterprise.
That’s how he launched Backgrounds Check and Screening Limited in 2011 to investigate, assess security threats for businesses, and sell security products.
“Background Check and Screening Limited is a security solution business established at a cost of Sh750,000, the money I was saving through my side jobs while I was on campus,” says the 35- year-old criminology and forensics graduate of Egerton University.
“The idea behind this business came through my dream to investigate crimes since I was young,” he says, but adds that taking off was a problem due to limited capital.
This hurt the prospects of winning clientele; worse, his concept was fairly new in the Kenyan market, something that required a lot of marketing.
“The big challenge was the concept behind Background Check. It was an area that people were not engaging in because of lack of knowledge. We could go for about four months with only small jobs,” he says.
However, he finally got a soft loan of Sh500,000 from his brother, enabling him to make bolder steps.
Six years down the line, the business has taken shape by running projects of between Sh30,000 and Sh2 million.
They offer services like security audit, employee background check, security training, private investigations, and undercover operations.
“Criminals have advanced both in intelligence and in technology to commit crimes with limited possibility of being detected and apprehended. In the process, they seek to commit serious felonies and induce losses that may run in billions of shillings,” he says.
It, therefore, behoves institutions to countermand this “by seeking to be ahead of those who are determined to destroy their very existence.”
He says sometimes he goes for a month without business “but sometimes you do not rest. A single business can bring up to about Sh2 million but we get others that pay as little as Sh30,000.”
Working with a team of 14 permanent employees and about 20 casual labourers, his client portfolio includes multinationals, local companies, NGOs, and academic institutions that he does not name due to confidentiality agreement and “sensitivity of the nature of our work.”
The proprietor says the biggest challenge so far has been lack a one-stop shop like a national information bureau where, under “one roof” one is able to cross-refer several items such as academic certificates, driving licences, history of employment, litigations and criminal histories.
Access to information that by law should be publicly available is also a nightmare despite the law allowing people to apply to be furnished with data they require.
“This hampers efficiency in conducting certain types of investigations.”
Despite these grey areas, the entrepreneur has set sights on establishing branches across the country and getting a bigger office space within Nairobi in anticipation of growth.
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