Partnership between Mastercard and Smile ID aims to enhance financial inclusion by providing a more secure and efficient way for businesses to enter the digital economy. Picture: Freepik
Mastercard and Smile ID, Africa’s leading digital Know Your Customer (KYC) provider are teaming up in a groundbreaking move to significantly improve the merchant onboarding process for businesses across Africa.
This collaboration includes integrating Smile ID’s digital verification technology into Mastercard’s Merchant Digital Onboarding Programme (MDOP), making it possible for merchants across 50 African countries to be onboarded in under three minutes instead of the usual several days.
The integration of Smile ID’s technology into the MDOP also offers third-party providers a secure, seamless and automated process for acquiring partners, including banks, mobile network operators, and payment facilitators.
“Traditional onboarding methods are often plagued with inefficiencies, high costs, and vulnerabilities to fraud,” stated Sekai Ndemanga, Senior Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets, Global Acceptance Team at Mastercard.
According to a Mckinsey report, across many African countries, due diligence and account opening process consume over 40% of the partner onboarding time because of manual data entry and system connectivity issues in the KYC (Know Your Customer), causing significant productivity delays.
A Mastercard report stating that it takes 3-7 days for a traditional acquirer to onboard a merchant on average, also confirms that with traditional onboarding methods, productivity usually happens at a slow rate.
Ndemanga added, “Our collaboration with Smile ID sets a new standard for speed, security, and user experience, demonstrating our commitment to fostering a secure and efficient digital ecosystem for African businesses.”
With this new partnership, acquiring partners can now leverage Smile ID’s suite of solutions, including ID document verification, SmartSelfie™ biometric face authentication, government database checks, AML/PEP checks, business verification, bank account verification, fraud prevention, phone number verification, and e-signature capabilities in real time, enhancing both efficiency and security.
“Smile ID is thrilled to collaborate with Mastercard because of their commitment to financial inclusion and innovation. Our combined offering allows acquiring banks and payment facilitators to delight their customers with locally optimised signup experiences while maintaining global best practices for speed and security,” CEO of Smile ID, Mark Straub, said.
This joint effort is a pivotal step towards paving the way for more businesses across the African continent to participate in the digital economy.
IOL