Stay compliant and onboard customers faster in Ethiopia

With Smile ID, you can quickly verify identities and stay compliant with digital KYC and data regulations in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Heading

Ethiopia is a member of both the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) AND East and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and has made strides towards bringing its KYC/AML regulations to a global standard.Companies looking to digitally onboard customers and verify identities in Benin are expected to adhere to local and international KYC regulations.

Regulatory Overview

KYC/AML regulations

AML/KYC regulations in Ethiopia are enforced by a number of regulators including the

  • National Bank of Ethiopia
  • Financial Intelligence Center

The primary KYC/AML regulation in Ethiopia is the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Proclamation No. 1176/2020.

Data protection regulations

The Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency (INSA)  enforces Ethiopia’s data protection laws via the Ethiopian Data Protection Directive (DPD).

Data processors are required to obtain their customer’s consent before processing and transferring personal data.

Accurately verify users in Ethiopia

Stay compliant, prevent fraud and streamline your user verification process for customers across Africa with Smile ID. Verify users with confidence with:

General - The most extensive ID coverage on the continent

General - 99.8% recognition accuracy for faces of all skin tones

General - A solution that is compatible with any device

Documents we verify in Ethiopia

Ethiopian National ID
Introduced in 2019, the Ethiopian National ID still has a limited spread across the population. However, it is on course to become the most popular ID type for KYC in coming years as the government rolls it out nationwide.
Ethiopian Passport
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is typically responsible for issuing passports to citizens.
Ethiopian Driver’s License
Driver’s Licenses issued by the Algerian MInstry of Public Works and Transport can also be used to verify identities in the country.
Ethiopian Resident Card
Resident cards issued by the Main Department for Immigration and Nationality Affairs can be used to verify the identities of foreigners resident in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian non-citizen ID
Non-citizen ID cards issued by the Main Department for Immigration and Nationality Affairs can be used to verify the identities of foreigners resident in Ethiopia for a short stay i.e. <90 days.
Verify Ethiopians using ID documents

Verifying users with ID documents and biometric face matching is one of the most reliable ways to determine a user's true identity. Our ID document verification solution checks that an ID document is authentic, accurately transcribes the text on the document and compares a user-submitted selfie to the document image.

Schedule a demo

Scan your document

Our image capture tools guide users to take clear photos even with older devices.

Smile for a selfie

Ensure the real user is behind the camera with a smile to test for liveness.

Get real-time results

In a few seconds, you will confirm the document is authentic and belongs to the user behind the camera.

Comprehensive Identity verification
(KYC/AML) solution in one place

Choose the best method to verify and onboard your customers efficiently.
Document Verification: Verify over 8500 documents across 220 countries globally, including Angola, with a 96% OCR accuracy.

Enhance your security with advanced authentication solutions.

Smartselfie Authentication: Protect your system with our AI-powered SmartSelfie Authentication solution, boasting a 99.8% accuracy rate for African faces. Integrate this into your multi-factor authentication system for accurate identity verification during access attempts.

Access all the tools you need to stop fraud in one place.

AML Check: Run AML checks on users against against 1100+ global and African sanctions, PEP, and adverse media lists.

Duplicate Account Prevention: Prevent duplicate account fraud with real-time scanning of previously registered faces during onboarding using our Smile Secure product.
Integration options

Seamlessly integrate our solutions via API or no-code option with your existing infrastructure to automate compliance.

Smile Links: A flexible, no-code option for creating customised user verification flows

SDKs: Available for iOS, Android, Hosted Web, Flutter, and React Native

Server-to-server libraries: Support for Ruby, Java, PHP, Python, and Node.js

REST API: Robust and flexible integration for efficient compliance automation