Mastercard has collaborated with Smile ID, an African digital know your customer provider, to streamline the merchant onboarding process for businesses in SA and Africa.
According to a statement, the collaboration will see Mastercard provide Smile ID with its Merchant Digital Onboarding Programme (MDOP).
This offers third-party providers a secure and automated experience for acquiring partners, such as banks, mobile network operators and payment facilitators.
The integration of Smile ID’s technology into the MDOP enables acquiring partners to digitally onboard merchants quickly and efficiently, streamlining verification and enhancing the customer experience. This process allows acquiring partners to digitally onboard merchants in over 50 African countries in a few minutes, according to Mastercard.
Through this collaboration, acquiring partners can leverage Smile ID’s suite of solutions, including ID document verification, SmartSelfie, biometric face authentication, government database checks, anti-money-laundering, business verification, bank account verification, fraud prevention, phone number verification and e-signature capabilities.
“Traditional onboarding methods are often plagued with inefficiencies, high costs and vulnerabilities to fraud,” says Sekai Ndemanga, senior VP, head of emerging markets, global acceptanceteam at Mastercard.
“Our collaboration with Smile ID marks a significant advancement in the merchant onboarding process, setting a new standard for speed, security and user experience.”
A Mastercard report states it takes between three and four days for a traditional acquirer to onboard a merchant, on average. Consequently, banks are streamlining these processes by automating public data aggregation, leveraging existing customer data and eliminating duplicate data elements.
“Our combined offering allows acquiring banks and payment facilitators to offer customers locally-optimised signup services, while maintaining speeds of global standard and security,” comments Mark Straub, CEO of Smile ID.
This joint effort is a step towards supporting African businesses with faster access to efficient payment systems, fostering financial inclusion and aligning with Mastercard’s global mission to bring one billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025, says the statement.
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