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Powering secure, FICA/RICA compliant onboarding in South Africa

Our AI-powered verification platform helps banks, telcos, fintechs, and other regulated industries onboard users swiftly and securely at scale—while ensuring full FICA/RICA compliance.

Leading companies in South Africa trust us

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90% reduction in fictitious sign-ups

Flutterwave built merchant trust, cutting fictitious sign-ups by 90% and onboarding time from 24 hours to 10 minutes.
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16 countries, one seamless KYC solution

Yellow Card automates KYC in 16 countries while meeting all compliance requirements.
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96% Pass Rate

Franc facilitates wealth management, reducing user verification time from 72 hours to 2 minutes at a 96% onboarding pass rate.
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End-to-end fraud detection and prevention for South Africa

We offer user verification and authentication solutions for onboarding and post-onboarding fraud prevention.

Onboarding

Post-onboarding

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Phone Number Verification

Verify user phone numbers from over 100 million records in South Africa.
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Biometric KYC

Verify user South Africa ID number against the official database and confirm ownership by matching their selfie to the photo on record.
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Address Verification

Digitally verify user addresses across South Africa in less than 60 seconds.
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Biometric Authentication

Authenticate users post onboarding via facial biometrics during high-risk events like large transfers or password resets.
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Global AML Checks

Instantly screen names against 1,100+ global and African sanctions, PEP, and adverse media lists, including UN, EU, US Treasury, OFAC, and Interpol—updated daily.

ID documents we verify in South Africa

Smart ID Card

Smart ID Card

Green Book

Green Book

Passport

Passport

Driver's License

Driver's License

Resident ID

Resident ID

Seaman ID

Seaman ID

Travel Documents

Travel Documents

Verify up to 3 ID numbers in South Africa

Our solution empowers businesses to verify South African ID numbers directly from government databases

1

South African National ID Number

With Smile ID, businesses can verify the South African National ID Number and the photo contained in the ID directly from the South African government databases to validate a user's identity.

2

South African National ID Number (No Photo)

Similar to the National ID number verification, businesses can verify a South African National ID Number directly from the credit bureau to validate a user's identity. However, with this option, they can opt to verify only the ID number without verifying the photo on the ID.

3

South African Phone Number

Our solution empowers businesses to verify phone numbers registered in South Africa, typically associated with a specific individual or organisation.

4

South African Refugee & Asylum ID

Verify the identity of individuals holding Refugee or Asylum IDs in South Africa using trusted data directly from an authority database. Smile ID enables fast, secure, and compliant KYC, ideal for onboarding individuals with legal refugee or asylum status.

KYB solution for onboarding businesses in South Africa

Our solution empowers businesses to verify 500k+ companies from government databases in South Africa. Receive information such as:

Company registration status

General company information and address

Directors' details and information

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Why Smile ID is the preferred choice for KYC onboarding in South Africa

Scale your business in South Africa with Smile ID. We enable fast-growing businesses to stay compliant, prevent fraud, and easily streamline their user verification process with:

Access to 3+ ID API Authorities covering over 55M+ ID records in South Africa.

Image capture SDKs optimised for low bandwidth and all software versions as low as Android 5.0 and iOS 13.

Regional endpoint optimisation that processes South African KYC checks in less than 1 second.

Transcribe document text with 96% accuracy.

Use biometrics to accurately detect 50% more fraud.

Advanced Security Certifications

Smile ID sets the standard in data protection with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications. Our latest achievement, ISO/IEC 30107-1:2023, boasts a 0% biometric facial recognition attack rating, ensuring 100% security against test attacks, making us the leading identity security company in South Africa. We also enable seamless FICA and RICA compliance, keeping your data and customers safe.

ISO 27001 certified for information security management

SOC 2 Type 2 compliant for security controls

ISO/IEC 30107-1:2023 certified with 0% attack rating

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Seamless integration, unmatched performance

Seamlessly integrate our solutions with your existing infrastructure and automate your compliance. Available integration options include:

Smile Links

Flexible, no-code option for creating customised user verification flows.

SDKs

iOs, Android, Hosted Web, Flutter, REACT Native.

Server-to-server libraries

Ruby, Java, PHP, Python, node.js.

REST API

Ready to get started?

We are equipped to help you level up your KYC/AML compliance stack. Our team is ready to understand your needs, answer questions, and set up your account.