Humanity thrives on trust. It’s the foundation of every meaningful connection. In today’s fast-paced digital economy, where skills and opportunities intersect at lightning speed, credibility has become the new currency.
For this edition of LaunchPad, the Moveee series bringing you fresh stories about notable culture projects shaping today’s world, we had an exclusive chat with Alex Oyebade, founder of Peercheck Africa, a verification platform redefining how professionals and businesses establish trust in the African workspace. In this conversation, he shares how Peercheck is building a more transparent, credible, and interconnected ecosystem for African workplaces. In a world where authenticity is in high demand, Peercheck is setting the standard for verified identity, one company at a time.
What inspired the creation of Peercheck, and what problem were you trying to solve in Africa’s labour market?
Peercheck started from a personal frustration about how we make major career decisions in Africa with zero knowledge about the company’s visibility and culture. We accept offers without knowing what others in similar roles earn or what the culture behind the smiles really feels like. I wanted to change that. Peercheck exists to bring context, fairness, and transparency to the African workplace because information really shouldn’t be a privilege.
What makes Peercheck’s model unique compared to global equivalents like Glassdoor?
Glassdoor was built for Silicon Valley, while we’re building for Surulere, Accra, and Nairobi. Our realities in Africa are different with FX swings, cost-of-living gaps, and benefits that don’t always show up in bank statements. Peercheck is not a Glassdoor clone because we are translating transparency for the African context.
We’re building with local nuance, real salaries, real cities, and real stories. It’s not only about the pay but about giving professionals data that actually makes sense where they live.
How does Peercheck work? Can you walk us through how users interact with the platform?
Professionals anonymously share their salaries, interview experiences, and company cultures. Every contribution earns credits that can be used to access insights from others. Employers can claim their pages, respond to feedback, and even showcase the steps they’re taking to improve. It becomes a living ecosystem where honest voices meet real accountability.
How do you balance privacy, honesty, and moderation when dealing with sensitive feedback?
We treat privacy like oxygen. To us, it’s not negotiable. Every review goes through both technological and human checks to prevent defamation or fake data. We don’t collect personal identifiers, and we separate opinion from fact. Our goal is to keep it honest but safe, where truth doesn’t turn into chaos.
Beyond employees leaving reviews, how do you get employers to engage meaningfully on the platform and take feedback seriously?
We are flipping the script. Instead of seeing feedback as a threat, we help them see it as free consulting. They get dashboards showing cultural trends and employee sentiment over time. When companies respond publicly or act on feedback, they earn credibility and candidates notice. In the long run, if done intentionally, listening becomes a brand advantage for them.
What have been some of the biggest technical or operational challenges you’ve faced building Peercheck, and how did you navigate them?
The first and biggest challenge was trust. People wanted transparency but feared exposure. In a market where speaking up can cost you your job, anonymity has to feel bulletproof. So we built privacy into the core with no personal identifiers, layered verification, and a clean promise: your voice, your data, your safety.
Then came data quality. Everyone has a story, but not every story is useful. We built internal tools to detect duplicates, normalise salaries across cities and currencies, and flag inconsistencies. Behind the scenes, there’s a small but committed team ensuring every insight is rooted in truth.
And finally, sustainability. Transparency doesn’t fund itself. So we designed a credits system where users earn by sharing verified reviews, and spend them to access deeper insights. It keeps the ecosystem alive, fair, and user-driven.
Each of these challenges forced us to grow sharper as believers in what a transparent Africa could look like.
So far, how would you describe Peercheck’s impact, in terms of awareness, adoption, or influence on workplace culture?
We’re really seeing the shift in real time. People are talking about salaries more openly, asking smarter questions before interviews, and companies are reaching out to understand how they’re perceived. Peercheck is fast evolving beyond a product; it’s becoming a mirror for Africa’s workplaces, and we hope to improve on these outcomes.
Is Peercheck designed solely for the Nigerian job market, or are there plans to expand across Africa?
Nigeria is home base, but the vision is continental. Once we reach critical data depth here, we’re scaling to Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa because the need is the same everywhere: people want fairness, and data brings that.
Is there anything you would do differently if you had to start again?
For now, I believe we are still building well. Lol
How do you see transparency in workplaces shaping Africa’s future of work over the next 5–10 years?
In the next decade, transparency will become power. Pay secrecy and hidden cultures will fade. The best workplaces will be those that publish, listen, and improve in public. It’s going to redefine leadership across the continent.
What advice would you give to other builders who want to tackle deep structural problems with data-driven solutions like this?
You quickly realise that you’re building around everything that doesn’t yet exist, like unreliable infrastructure, fragmented systems, scepticism, sometimes cynicism, and a deep-seated fear of change. But if you stay long enough, you also see something magical in how hungry people are for products that actually understand them.
The beauty in building unveils itself when you look beyond trends to solve something real and not just what looks “fundable.” If you’re dealing with structural issues like trust, data, or inequality, patience and consistency will outperform hype every time.
Most importantly, embrace the chaos. There’s simply no perfect playbook for this continent. Every city is a new variable. But that’s the opportunity: if you can build something that works in Africa, you can build for anywhere. At least, that’s what I believe.
If you could share one piece of advice with the Nigerian job seeker today, what would it be?
Know your worth and don’t negotiate from ignorance. Do your homework, talk to peers, and remember that you’re not just earning a salary but you’re trading your time, energy, and growth. So make it count.
What should we expect when Peercheck officially launches?
A clean, simple platform built for trust where you can read honest reviews, share your own experience, and finally see what your career path really looks like in numbers and stories.
Peercheck will make workplace transparency a norm in Africa.
LaunchPad is a Moveee series bringing you fresh stories across industries on notable culture projects shaping today’s world. Do you have a project you would love to spotlight? Get in touch with us today.
