14 Feb Know your customer trends in Africa

Smile Identity has released its end-of-year 2022 Know Your Customer (KYC) report. The right highlights the crucial role of tailored onboarding processes, and uses data from nearly 50 million KYC checks to determine the current state of KYC trends, policies and best practice across Africa.

The report found that Africa saw sustained investment in technology in 2022, demonstrating the importance of digital identity infrastructure. It noted that fraud rates stabilised in the second half of the year, in part this was down to increased security measures in online spaces and stronger KYC checks.

In addition, regulatory enforcement of user consent through digital channels has increased as privacy concerns have risen over the proliferation of personal data.

The Smile Identify Report praised two new initiatives. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) with iGree, and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) with virtual NIN (vNIN). These two consent layers aim to transfer the process of collecting user consent from businesses to ID issuing authorities.

These Nigerian policies create standards for using digital identity credentials and aim to give users a higher level of security and control when interacting with businesses. Other African nations are also modernising their ID infrastructure to harmonise data, reduce fraud, improve service delivery, and increase inclusion.