Smartcomply Expands to UK to Tackle African Payment Compliance Gap

Fadekemi Ajakaiye

African compliance and cybersecurity firm Smartcomply has expanded into the United Kingdom, aiming to address long-standing compliance challenges affecting financial transactions between the UK and African markets.

The company, which says it is trusted by more than 100 financial institutions across Africa, has registered to operate in the UK and is introducing its flagship platform, Adhere, an artificial intelligence-powered anti-money laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC), and fraud detection system designed for African payment corridors.

The move comes as UK financial institutions — including electronic money institutions, remittance firms, neobanks and fintechs — face increasing regulatory pressure and rising compliance costs when processing Africa-linked transactions. Industry data cited by the company indicates that correspondent banking relationships in Sub-Saharan Africa have declined by more than 25% over the past decade, contributing to reduced financial connectivity.

UK remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa are estimated at more than £4 billion annually, while the average cost of sending money to the region stands at about 8.5%, more than double the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.

Smartcomply said its Adhere platform is designed to close this gap by providing real-time transaction monitoring, automated KYC and KYB workflows, sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) screening, corridor intelligence, and audit-ready reporting tailored to African regulatory environments.
“African payment corridors should be a growth opportunity for the global financial system, not a liability,” said Gbemisola Osunrinde, chief executive officer of Smartcomply. “Adhere exists to make that growth possible without compromising on compliance.”

She added that the company’s UK presence would give financial institutions direct access to a compliance infrastructure built specifically for African data and transaction realities.
Adhere currently monitors more than $1 billion in monthly transactions across its customer base and, according to Smartcomply, has helped reduce manual compliance workloads by about 70% while cutting false positive fraud alerts by 40%.

Earlier in 2026, Smartcomply was admitted into the Mastercard Engage Partner Program, which connects vetted technology providers with financial institutions and payment networks globally.
The company also noted that its platform is aligned with regulatory frameworks including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Baseline Standards for Automated AML Solutions, as well as international standards such as FATF guidelines, GDPR, and Nigeria’s data protection regulations.

Co-founder and chief technology officer Anita Ajalla said traditional compliance systems developed outside Africa often struggle to interpret local financial behaviour patterns.
“Compliance technology designed in New York or London cannot read Nigerian Bank Verification Numbers or understand mobile money flows in Kenya,” she said. “We built Adhere because we lived the problem.”

With the UK expansion, Smartcomply now operates across Nigeria, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, and says it is in active discussions with UK financial institutions serving African payment corridors.
The company said discovery engagements with potential partners are now open through its website.