Money is almost everything, and finding digital tools and services that help you either get more money or manage what you have can be the most exciting thing. That said, making money should be the only financial hassle anyone has to get through; not spending, transferring, or managing it effectively.
The current onboarding process
Today, when you find an app or website for borrowing, banking, investing or finance management purposes, you have to sign up to try it out. This sign up process is called Know Your Customer (KYC) and was introduced in Nigeria sometime around 2009 by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
This KYC process requires you to enter details about yourself, your job, and of course, some financial information, all manually. If you're interested in using digital finance products for all 3 categories of wealth management, this would mean at least 3 apps or websites that you'll need to go through a signup process for. There's no guaranty that you'll love all the services you sign up for, and if you don't, you'll seek out a similar service. When you find it, you have to sign up yet again. This is long, repetitive, and time-wasting.
Since the first directive on KYC was issued, largely for the purpose of financial inclusion, the process has remained the same. Long forms filled manually either by hand or digitally. Other non-financial systems have also adopted KYC, for the purpose of identity verification. An example is the SIM card registration.
As we move into the most modern times in our digital economy, some things have remained painfully stagnant. Providing biodata information on every website or app that requires it has become highly redundant. Information exists on various systems, but are so dispersed. We sign up to use various services even just once and forget that we ever did.
How do we fix this?
This problem isn't one that was actively created. It is only one that has emerged as a result of advancement; growing pains; a good problem, if there's any such thing.
To create better and truly seamless signup and onboarding processes, the solution is not to eliminate the step. That would simply create a huge financial security problem. In the financial industry, this repetitiveness that has been created as a result of multiple and dispersed authentications can be fixed if we find a way to unify customer data.
Imagine if there was a secure, single identity pass that had all your personal information; name, date of birth, email, phone number, BVN, biometrics, and more. Think of it as a master key that opens the main entrance into a big house, along with all the other adjoining doors inside it. Something that you sign up for just one time and use as a key for other sign-ups in the future.
If you're unable to visualize this solution, think about the ease that the 'Sign up with Gmail' option affords you. We almost can't remember a time without it. Think Fast, but for KYC, signups, and onboarding.
With a single-click sign up option, businesses can sign up twice as many people, with already authenticated information, twice as fast. Users can go straight to the meat of your service and not drop-off from a long sign up process.
Introducing myPass
We're sticklers for creating the best customer experience, and this vision has led us to create a product that can be a solution to a problem that is now so generally faced. This is why we're excited to announce myPass!
What is myPass
myPass is a digital identity wallet that will enable one-click signups across mobile and web apps in Africa, and eliminate repetitive signups and KYC processes.
With one-click signups for users, faster user onboarding and better customer experience for businesses, and data and consent control for users, myPass will change the way identity profiling and verification work.
In the last few months, coincidentally, we have seen an expression of frustration about this problem from fin-tech Engineers, end-users, and others across the tech industry. The internet economy in Africa is growing rapidly and we're excited to encounter problems that tech and people can fix.
How to get started
To get in early on one-click signups and next level onboarding experiences, as a user or as a business, simply visit myPass to join our waitlist. Don't forget to share with others, and follow myPass on Twitter! See you on the other side.
