Keyo partner brings palm biometrics to DRC for secure payments

Palm biometrics firm Keyo has announced a partnership in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which is intended to help advance financial inclusion efforts in the vast central African country.

In a blog article, which is one in a series on Keyo’s customers and integration partners, the palm biometrics provider explains its partnership with Al.Tech which has led to the introduction of a digital payment platform dubbed MainMoney.

The blog also presents the profile of Al.Tech Founder and CEO, Sylvain Mubenga, and his efforts in building the digital payments platform that facilitates financial transactions through a digital wallet using palm authentication. MainMoney is one of three Al.Tech products using palm biometrics from Keyo, along with MainID for identity verification and MainSecure for physical access control.

The integration between Al.Tech and Keyo allows individuals in the DRC to use MainMoney as a store to deposit both checks or physical cash, according to the blog. It is described as a robust platform that is “secure, user-friendly, and scalable.”

The service, introduced in August, was built by Al.Tech integrating Keyo’s membership dashboard web application into its product suite to permit the creation of accounts in a privacy-preserving manner.

Those who use the wallet have the option not to carry huge amounts of cash with them, as they can complete their financial transactions using the service. It is explained that the wallet is made up of two applications: one for the enrollment of the user which allows them to easily open an account and register their palm vein biometrics, and the other for payments which enables users to easily access their accounts to complete transactions.

The solution, born out of the integration, has a number of features. These include biometrics authentication using palm recognition, interface customization, scalability to allow for expansion of features and number of users.

Keyo notes that the same technology can be used to comply with data protection regulations like the EU’s GDPR, California’s CCPA and Illinois’ BIPA.

Mubenga, CEO of the platform, is presented in the Keyo blog as an entrepreneur with a rich career in the domains of telecommunications, engineering and banking. In the banking sector, for instance, he had a recent stint with payments giant Mastercard where he worked as lead architect, contributing to advancing the company’s payment solutions offering. Before then, he had also served as senior network and security architect at Barclays Bank.

He is recognized for his exploits in helping people in the DRC get into the financial inclusion fold using MainMoney whose principal objective is to streamline payments and make financial transactions more secure and trustworthy. World Bank data estimates that about 1.4 billion adults around the world are currently financially excluded.

MainMoney has been introduced at a time when there is a reported rise in mobile financial services in DRC, reflecting growing interest in the adoption of digital wallets and digital payment methods.

Article Topics

access control  |  Al.Tech  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  Democratic Republic of Congo  |  Keyo  |  palm biometrics