Access Bank & Element Inc Announce AI and Digital Identity Partnership

Access Bank, Africa’s largest bank by customer base with over 36 million customers, has partnered with Element to provide eKYC, digital onboarding, and mobile security innovations to its customers in Nigeria and across Africa.

The partnership covers the Bank’s flagship FacePay application for merchant and branch banking, the NextGen mobile application - Access More, and WhatsApp Banking.

Speaking on the innovation, Ade Bajomo, the Executive Director, Information Technology and Operations at Access Bank said, “At Access Bank, we are committed to investing in technological innovations to ensure our customers continue to enjoy seamless financial transactions and services.  Our premier artificial intelligence enabled payment solution called FacePay, is the first of its kind in the entire industry. It is a highly-secured face recognition payment solution which leverages machine learning to enable users to consummate transactions across Access Bank branches and merchant locations. We want to increase financial inclusion in Nigeria and indeed Africa, as such going digital is essential to providing banking services to the populace.”

Daniel Awe, Head of Africa Fintech Foundry, an initiative of Access Bank said “AFF was established to facilitate the delivery of market-relevant solutions. We also intend to lead the market in the provision of greater access to financial services to the financial excluded across Nigeria and the continent. We are delighted to have executed these innovations in line with our vision and in partnership with a company that has demonstrated technical excellence and high performance in the execution of this project.”

“Working with Access Bank has inspired us to build new levels of platform features at higher performance thresholds, due to the excellence of their standards and processes” said Seun Ojo, Engineering Lead, Element Nigeria. “Once we’d completed the comprehensive testing and compliance processes across technical and product requirements, our launch was swifter than anticipated, with impressive growth rates and positive user feedback.” 

“At Element our business is true partnership, starting with understanding the end-user journey with empathy, in addition to lots of listening to our partner stakeholders’ requirements and product roadmap planning” said Bradley Scott, VP of Product of Element. “We’re very proud of this platform launch with Access Bank, which should help provide many Nigerians and Africans more broadly access to essential financial services, to enable them to transact across core digital commerce use cases, to help them live a more empowered and independent lifestyle, something never more important than in the current era.”

About Access Bank

Access Bank Plc. is a leading full-service commercial Bank operating through a network of more than 600 branches and service outlets, spanning three continents, 12 countries and over 36 million customers. The Bank employs 28,000 people in its operations in Nigeria and has subsidiaries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom (with a branch in Dubai, UAE) and representative offices in China, Lebanon and India.

As part of its continued growth strategy, Access Bank is focused on mainstreaming sustainable business practices into its operations. The Bank strives to deliver sustainable economic growth that is profitable, environmentally responsible and socially relevant, helping customers to access more and achieve their dreams.   

In honour of its defining roles across the African continent, Access Bank has been accorded recognition by reputable domestic and global organisations. Some of these recognitions include: 2019 World Finance Award “Best Digital Bank in Nigeria”; 2019 World Finance Award “Best Mobile App in Nigeria”; 2019 Karlsruhe Sustainable Finance Awards; “Outstanding Business Sustainability Achievement”; 2018 Euromoney Private Banking Awards “Best Commercial Banking Capabilities”; 2018 Euromoney ‘Africa’s Best Bank for CSR’ Award; 2018 CBN ‘Sustainable Bank of the Year’; ‘Sustainable Transaction of the Year (Oil & Gas)’,  ‘Sustainable Transaction of the Year (Power)’; 2018 Global Banking and Finance Review, “Best Investor Relations Bank in Nigeria”; 2018 SERAS ‘Most Sustainable Company in Africa”, 2019 CEO Awards Forum “Gender Leader of the Year” just to mention a few. Learn more at https://www.accessbankplc.com/.

About Element

As the world demands digital delivery of products and services, Element is delivering a persistent, private, and portable unique digital identity designed with intention. Element - the first modern artificial intelligence company focused on digital identity - laid the foundations for deploying deep learning on mobile devices. Our universal solution learns directly from natural features, ensuring mobile identity for anyone, anywhere.

We partner with forward-thinking financial institutions, governments, and healthcare organizations to transform how they deliver their services. Our partners choose to work with us because we deliver faster access without compromise – securely connecting anyone to any service while retaining the right to privacy. Together, we’re building a frictionless future. Learn more at www.elementresearch.com.