10 Red Flags to Watch for When Hiring Domestic Staff in Nigeria

After years of background verification work — first at the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, now heading vetting at COHCASEL — I can tell you: most hiring disasters are predictable. Not in retrospect. In the interview. In the application. Before anyone enters your home.

These are the ten red flags I see families ignore most often.

1. They Cannot Produce a NIN

Every adult Nigerian should have a National Identity Number. If a candidate says they do not have one, or produces a card that does not match their name, this is a hard stop. Do not proceed. There are legitimate reasons people have NIN delays, but "I left it at home" and "my name is spelled differently" are explanations that require verification before you continue.

2. References Who Cannot Be Called

"She gave me numbers but nobody answers." This is one of the most common experiences our clients report when they try to verify references independently. Real references answer phone calls. If you cannot reach a reference after two attempts at different times of day, ask the candidate to arrange a direct introduction — have them call the reference in front of you. If they cannot, ask yourself why.

3. A Gap in Their Employment History They Cannot Explain

A six-month gap is not automatically suspicious. A two-year gap they become evasive about is. The key is not the gap — it is the response. Do they give a clear, verifiable explanation? (I cared for my own parent who was ill. I was studying. I returned to the village.) Or do they get vague, change the subject, or give a different answer to the same question asked twice?

4. They Badmouth Previous Employers

Everyone has difficult employers in their history. A professional caregiver knows how to describe a difficult situation without vilifying the family. Extended complaints about a previous employer — "they didn't feed me," "they were always insulting me," "the children were completely out of control" — tells you less about the employer and more about how this person will talk about you when they leave.

5. They Are Unclear About Their Last Salary

This is a subtle one. Candidates who are comfortable inflating their previous salary are also comfortable inflating other things — their experience, their certifications, their credentials. Ask the question directly: "What were you earning in your last role?" A legitimate answer is specific. "Around ₦60,000" is fine. "It varied" with no further detail is a prompt to dig deeper.

6. They Do Not Ask Any Questions About the Role

A candidate who does not ask a single question about the family, the children, the schedule, or the household is either profoundly incurious or not actually invested in whether this is a good fit. Neither quality serves you. Good domestic workers care about the environment they are entering. Questions — about the children's routine, about expectations, about how feedback is given — are a sign of professionalism.

7. Their Certification Cannot Be Verified

A candidate presents a certificate. You check the issuing body's verification system. It does not match, the number is not in the database, or the body has never heard of them. This happens. CHMC certificates are verifiable instantly at cohcasel.com/certification. Any legitimate certification body has an equivalent. If it cannot be verified, it was not earned through a legitimate process.

8. They Are Reluctant to Undergo a Background Check

The most common excuse is "it takes too long" or "I did one recently." Both may be true, and both are irrelevant. A background check is for your peace of mind, not theirs. A candidate who is genuinely clean has nothing to resist. Resistance — any version of it — is worth noting.

9. They Want to Start Immediately, With No Notice Period

A candidate who can start tomorrow was either unemployed (fine, not a red flag on its own), or left their last role without notice, or was let go. Ask clearly: "Why can you start so quickly?" The answer matters more than the fact.

10. Something Feels Off And You Cannot Name It

I am not usually one to recommend gut feelings as a hiring criterion. But experienced interviewers know that the subconscious picks up micro-signals before the conscious mind has processed them. If you finish an interview and feel uneasy without being able to articulate why, do not dismiss it. Ask a second person to interview the same candidate. Run the background check especially carefully. Give yourself time before deciding.

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These red flags do not mean automatic disqualification. They mean: pause, verify, ask one more question. The families who hire well are not luckier than the ones who hire badly. They are more patient and more thorough at the beginning, which saves them from far more painful experiences later.

If you want COHCASEL to handle the vetting process entirely — background checks, reference calls, NIN verification, all of it — start your placement request here.