AI reshapes compliance in African remittances

By Parth Prabhudesai

Rising compliance pressures and declining correspondent banking relationships are reshaping the economics of cross-border remittances into Sub-Saharan Africa, creating growing demand for region-specific compliance infrastructure and AI-driven fraud monitoring systems.

According to findings referenced by World Bank and SWIFT, correspondent banking relationships linked to Sub-Saharan Africa have declined by more than 25% over the past decade as global banks continue to de-risk African payment corridors. The trend has contributed to higher transaction costs, reduced banking access, and increased compliance burdens for financial institutions operating across the region.

Against this backdrop, Smartcomply has expanded into the UK market with its AI-powered AML, KYC, and fraud detection platform, Adhere. The company aims to help UK banks and FinTechs better manage compliance requirements tied to African remittance flows, which now exceed £4 billion annually from the UK to Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the scale of these flows, remittance costs to the region remain among the highest globally, averaging around 8.5%.

Adhere is designed specifically for African financial ecosystems, providing real-time transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, customer verification, and audit-ready compliance reporting tailored to local payment dynamics. The platform currently monitors more than $1 billion in monthly transaction volumes across Africa and has reportedly reduced manual compliance workloads by 70% while lowering false positive fraud alerts by 40%.

Gbemisola Osunrinde,Chief Executive Officer of Smartcomply, said African payment corridors should be viewed as a growth opportunity rather than a compliance burden.

“Adhere exists to make that growth possible without compromising on compliance,” Osunrinde said, adding that UK financial institutions now have access to an AML platform built specifically around African market realities.

Anita Ajalla, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Smartcomply, noted that many global compliance systems struggle to interpret African financial identifiers, mobile money flows, and regional fraud patterns accurately.

The development highlights a broader shift toward specialised compliance infrastructure as banks and FinTechs seek to balance financial inclusion, cross-border growth, and stricter global regulatory expectations across emerging markets.