Businesses in sub-Saharan Africa have been urged to leverage digital innovation to achieve scale, improve efficiency and enhance customer experience.
Director, Corporate Strategy & Growth, VerifyMe Nigeria, Mohammed Maibe, made the call on the sidelines of the discussion on Digital Business Solutions: The future of Africa’s economy, at the recently concluded African Tech Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to Maibe, the ability to harness the opportunities offered by digitalisation will distinguish businesses that attain sustainability and profitability from those who fail in Africa’s challenging business environment.
He said: “We are in an era where technology plays a critical role in the evolution and sustainability of business across sectors. As fast-paced innovation in technology continues to drive complimentary response in regulation and consumer demands, industry expertise will simply not be enough to guarantee the survival of businesses.
“Now, more than ever, operators must tap into the opportunities that digitization offers so that they can be in sync with the changing dynamics of the operating environment, scale faster in a cheaper and more efficient way, and keep within the ambits of regulation.
For example, he said Know Your Customer (KYC) used to be a sore point between organisations and regulators because the former considered it too expensive and beyond the scope of their competence.
However, leveraging technology, VerifyMe was able to bridge the gap by building an eKYC infrastructure that directly connects companies with the government’s database. This helped companies achieve compliance at very reduced costs without the burden of reaching outside their core business.
“Our new Business-to-Business platform, QoreID, offers a one-stop solution for all business verification ranging from AML checks, digital and last mile address verification, financial and criminal profiling and much more. So, convenience is also one of the advantages that digitisation brings.”
Continuing, Maibe called on African innovators to leverage homegrown technology in providing practical solutions that meet the continent’s needs.
He noted: “I believe the start-up community has done well in responding to the needs of the market but we must see it from the mindset of a journey, not a destination. This is one of the reasons we are excited about our work in pivoting beyond identity to powering consumer data to drive Africa’s credit economy because we are convinced that it is a critical foundation for a financially inclusive society.
