Most supplier fraud is not sophisticated. It fails a registry lookup, a bank-name match and a video call. Here are the seven checks, in the order that kills the most deals earliest, and what each one costs.
<p class="lead"><strong>Run these seven checks in order and you will disqualify a fraudulent supplier in the first two, before you have spent anything.</strong> Almost none of the fraud that hits first-time buyers in African trade is sophisticated. It is a company that is not registered, a bank account in a different name from the company, and a factory that cannot be shown on a live video call. The checks below are ordered by how many deals they kill per hour spent.</p> <h2>Check 1 — Does the company exist in its national registry?</h2> <p>Free, five minutes, and it ends more conversations than everything else combined. Every major African jurisdiction has an online registry with at least a name-and-status lookup.</p> <table> <thead><tr><th>Country</th><th>Registry</th><th>Public search</th></tr></thead> <tbody> <tr><td>Nigeria</td><td>Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)</td><td>Free name and status search; certified extracts payable</td></tr> <tr><td>Ghana</td><td>Office of the Registrar of Companies</td><td>Online search; UBO disclosure required under Act 992</td></tr> <tr><td>Kenya</td><td>Business Registration Service (eCitizen)</td><td>Account-based search</td