Launching an online service in Southeast Africa: KYC, privacy, and fraud risks
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I’m helping my colleagues set up fraud protection for an online service that’s launching in Southeast Africa. A risk consultant warned that the online betting sector there is growing at a breakneck pace, but the regulatory framework and customer identification rules in each jurisdiction have their own strict requirements.
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What’s the best way to organize user verification so we don’t violate local laws or make registration more complicated? And do the local regulatory authorities require that personal information be stored exclusively on local physical servers, or will cloud solutions be sufficient?
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The verification process there is indeed confusing—some places only require a phone number linked to a mobile wallet, while others won’t let you in at all without passport information. I struggled with setting up anti-fraud measures last fall when we were testing local payment gateways. An analytical report at https://www.newzimbabwe.com/africa-is-becoming-the-main-battleground-for-online-sports-betting-but-the-rules-of-the-game-differ-in-every-country/ made our lives much easier back then; it compiles the key differences in the requirements of regulatory bodies across various regions. As for servers, most countries allow standard cloud services as long as encryption is robust. And what specific authentication methods do you plan to implement at launch?