Innovation opportunities for enhanced remittance access

As part of our Remittance Access Ininitative (RAI), Cenfri conducted a regulatory assessment of seven countries (Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia and Uganda) to consider whether the regulatory environment was conducive to innovations around the know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) procedures undertaken by remittance service providers.

KYC and CDD procedures are often key impediments in enabling access to remittances for low-income and rural households. The Remittance Access Initiative, which is supported by IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) and the European Union, sought to address this access challenge by working with RSPs and regulators in the seven countries to innovate those processes,

This regulatory assessment, conducted between February and December 2021, involved conducting desktop research, official document reviews and consultations with regulators to get their inputs and draw insights. In this study, we:

• Cover the background of the assessment and issues
• Unpack the concept of identity and its relation to the KYC/CDD processes
• Provide the final assessments for each country

The Remittance Access Initiative is a two-year programme to improve access to cheaper, faster and safer remittance services through identity proofing and related customer due diligence (CDD) and know-your-customer (KYC) innovations. If you would like to know more about the initiative contact Masiiwa Rusare via masiiwa@cenfri.org.