Nearly half a billion adults in Africa lack access to identification documents undermining crucial service delivery, security and potential revenue centres for government agencies.

The ID4Africa movement highlights that identity is crucial for individuals, businesses and governments to mitigate risk, access financial services and engage with the digital economy.

Cenfri Technical Director and Digital Identity Expert Barry Cooper will present research on the role of identification in enabling access to welfare enhancing financial services at the upcoming ID4Africa in Johannesburg from the 18^th to the 21^st of June.

Identification can support in building inclusive financial ecosystems with the potential to curb money-laundering, allow better interoperability across the continent and assist those who are financially excluded.

“Inclusive ecosystems are dependent on robust and responsible identity systems. In our research and engagements, we have found that there are gaps in and between regulation, policy and the application of identity technology in emerging markets. These gaps need to be addressed in order to better serve governments, businesses and people.”

Barry Cooper, Cenfri Technical Director and Digital Identity Expert

Cenfri’s research on inclusive ecosystems has explored innovation in identity and regulation and have found several potential ways to fill these gaps.

• Proof of address: Remove proof of address as a KYC requirement.
• Robust identifiers: Apply more robust identifiers, such as biometrics to replace high-risk identifiers.
• Interoperability: Facilitate interoperable identity across jurisdictions to enhance ecosystems development and economic activity
• Decentralised identity networks: Empower consumers to own and facilitate the use of identity data and reduce risk to service providers.
• KYC utilities: Enhance efficiency, security and convenience of KYC processes for governments and service providers.

If you are interested in learning more about our research on identity and its role in building inclusive financial ecosystems, please contact us at comms@cenfri.org.