6 African tech companies transforming the KYC landscape

A huge swath of the African population lacks any form of identification. This makes it difficult for financial institutions and other companies to conduct KYC (know your customer) protocols and issue spills into various facets of life, leading to financial exclusion and denial of government services.

KYC guidelines, including government regulations, are meant to prevent unlawful access to the banking system and typically include anti-money laundering requirements such as verification of customers’ identity, and assessing their risk factors. KYC protocols also are used by a variety of companies to prevent fraud and theft.

Interactions with enterprises like banks and insurance companies require some form of identification, which in turn makes the onboarding experience difficult for many customers.

In countries that have official forms of identification, they are typically paper-based, which makes them difficult to use for businesses using newer, digital services.

The growing threat of identity theft has also left many institutions without the appropriate tools to do proper know you customer (KYC) checks.

However, technology including mobile phones, aided by internet penetration, is opening up opportunities for start-ups to offer KYC solutions to businesses across the continent.