African compliance and cybersecurity company, Smartcomply, has concluded plans to tackle the high cost of remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa.

This followed findings by the World Bank and SWIFT showing that de-risking of African financial flows has intensified, with correspondent banking relationships into Sub-Saharan Africa declining by more than 25 per cent over the past decade.

The data showed that outbound remittances from the United Kingdom to Sub-Saharan Africa now exceed £4 billion annually, out of a UK total of more than £9 billion, while the average remittance cost to the region remains as high as 8.5 per cent.

While announcing its entry into the United Kingdom, the company brought with it Adhere, its flagship AI-powered AML, KYC, and fraud detection platform, purpose-built for the complexity of African payment corridors.

Therefore, Adhere would provide UK financial institutions with the corridor intelligence, real-time transaction monitoring, automated KYC and KYB orchestration, sanctions and PEP screening, and audit-ready reporting they need to operate confidently across African markets.

Speaking on the development, Chief Executive Officer, Smartcomply, Gbemisola Osunrinde, said: “African payment corridors should be a growth opportunity for the global financial system, not a liability. Adhere exists to make that growth possible without compromising on compliance. Smartcomply’s UK presence means that for the first time, UK fintechs and banks have direct access to an AML platform that understands African data the way it should be understood: from the inside out.”

Also speaking, Chief Technology Officer, Smartcomply, Anita Ajalla, said: “We built Adhere because we lived with the problem. Compliance technology designed in New York or London cannot read Nigerian Bank Verification Numbers, cannot understand mobile money flows in Kenya, and cannot make sense of West African mule networks. The companies that get to participate in African growth are the ones with infrastructure built for African reality. We are bringing that infrastructure to London.”

Meanwhile, Adhere already monitors more than $1 billion in transactions monthly for its customer base across the African continent. Customers report a 70 per cent reduction in manual compliance workload and a 40 per cent decrease in false positive fraud alerts.

Earlier this year, Smartcomply was named a verified member of the Mastercard Engage Partner Program, joining an exclusive ecosystem of vetted technology providers delivering market-ready compliance and fraud detection solutions globally.