Nairobi — Demand for data has been growing among Government institutions, Central Banks, regulators and revenue authorities as they seek to get crucial data.
Generated information can help them raise more revenue, solve existing challenges, comply with regulations, among others.
One of the firms that is helping the Kenyan Government in this is Global Voice Group.
Capital Business had a talk with its CEO James Claude and this is what he had to say:
How is RegTech impacting policy making in Africa and what specific solutions have been implemented to enhance the process
Global Voice Group has been supporting Regulatory bodies and Government agencies for 25 years in their mission to further boost their revenue assurance, market oversight and decision-making capabilities, through data technologies, long before the term Regtech was coined.
RegTech is significantly impacting policy making in Africa by revolutionizing the way regulatory processes are managed, monitored, and enforced.
This technology-driven approach brings efficiency, transparency, and accountability to policy development and implementation.
One of the key benefits of RegTech is the support for data-driven decision making, as data analysis is at its core.
The real-time collection of data hastens this process, allowing authorities to be swift in their oversight of crucial economic sectors.
By enabling governments and regulators to monitor compliance, RegTech allows them to be proactive about it as well and to reduce the cost and burden of such compliance across the regulated industry.
There are many examples of RegTech solutions that have been implemented in Africa to bolster the effectiveness of government policies.
In what ways does RegTech contribute to transparency, efficiency, and accountability in African policy development and enforcement
RegTech solutions leverage data analytics to process vast amounts of information from diverse sources. Policymakers can then make informed decisions based on data-driven insights, ensuring transparency in the decision-making process.
Additionally, as these technologies aggregate data from multiple sources in real-time, with measures in place to prevent tampering, the result is unfiltered information that paints a clear picture of the sector being monitored.
This leads to the sealing of gaps in any policy frameworks developed by providing regulators and governments with an accurate picture of the impact of any new policies and guiding them on how best to go about enforcing any regulations.
RegTech also automates compliance procedures, reducing the administrative burden on businesses and regulators. This streamlines the compliance process, making it easier for stakeholders to adhere to policies and regulations.
Furthermore, it creates digital records of policy changes, decisions, and compliance activities, developing an audit trail that overall enhances transparency and accountability, as actions can be traced and verified easily.
What are the potential challenges associated with integrating RegTech into policy making in Africa, and how are they being addressed
Integrating RegTech into policy making in Africa comes with several potential challenges, and addressing these challenges is crucial for maximizing the benefits of technology-driven regulatory solutions. One such challenge is proper regulatotry framakework.
A significant issue is the adequacy of regulatory frameworks. In numerous nations, the existing legislation needs to be revised to keep pace with the advancements we've observed in critical industries, such as telecommunications and finance.
Africa must also deal with the issues around data privacy and security as RegTech involves handling sensitive data, usually belonging to citizens. Implementing robust data protection measures and complying with international data security standards are essential to address these concerns.
It is important to make sure that the data being collected is taking through the necessary processes to prevent the breaching of that data, or its transfer to unauthorised parties. There is also a need to enhance local capacity for RegTech implementation to effectively use RegTech tools.
Training programs can be designed to empower officials to leverage technology for better policy-making outcomes. Therefore, the trust in the RegTech implementations is the cornerstone of the successful integration of RegTech solutions.
Trust is a key requirement when it comes to building a digital society. The public sector needs accurate and reliable data for policymaking purposes.
Lastly, ensuring that RegTech solutions can integrate with existing systems and platforms is essential for smooth implementation and efficient collaboration between different regulatory authorities.
Without interoperability, these solutions will create a new stumbling block and introduce inefficiencies that would simply be done away with by ensuring the interoperability of these solutions.
How does the use of RegTech assist African governments in ensuring policies align with international standards and foster innovation and economic growth
There are several ways in which RegTech can assist African Government in aligning their policies with international standard to boost innovation and economic growth.
The first of these is cross-border collaboration. RegTech facilitates communication and collaboration between regulatory authorities across different countries.
This enables African governments to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and harmonize policies with international peers, ensuring consistency and alignment with global standards. As already mentioned, RegTech allows for efficient reporting on policy implementation.
This efficiency creates room for enhanced scrutinization of the impact of these policies, by collecting actionable data.
This also allows for more conclusive benchmarking against what is being done across other geographies to align any changes with international standards, improving economic growth.
How has RegTech been utilized to detect and prevent financial crimes and promote sustainable business practices in African economies
RegTech has been instrumental in detecting and preventing financial crimes and promoting sustainable business practices in African economies through various means, including KYC and AML compliance, transaction monitoring, fraud detection and prevention and transaction traceability.
There are RegTech solutions that offer robust Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance tools.
These technologies streamline customer due diligence processes, ensuring that businesses and financial institutions adhere to regulatory requirements and prevent illicit activities. Our platforms enable continuous monitoring of financial transactions.
Any anomalies or deviations from expected patterns trigger alerts for further investigation, allowing authorities to act promptly in case of suspicious activities.
They also provide end-to-end traceability of financial transactions, making it easier to identify the source of funds and track money flows.
This traceability is crucial in combating illicit financial activities. RegTech solutions employ machine learning algorithms to detect and prevent fraud in various financial activities, safeguarding businesses and consumers from financial losses.
As they leverage advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of financial data in real-time, it makes it easier to identify unusual patterns and suspicious transactions, aiding in the detection of financial crimes such as money laundering and fraud.
How has Global Voice Group evolved and adapted its technology and services over the past 25 years to meet the changing regulatory and security challenges in the telecommunications industry
When we started in 1998, our goal was to bridge the connectivity gap between emerging markets and the rest of the world, focused mainly in the telecoms sector. In the early 2000s, we began to develop telecom regulatory technologies.
As telecoms became the foundation for other sectors, such as mobile money, we adapted our services to provide digital technologies to support not only the telecom regulators, but also support other agencies in their mandate of monitoring compliance.
At Global Voice Group we have a deep understanding of the digital transformation process in emerging economies.
Combined with our technological strengths, it has allowed us to become a catalyst of technological changes, alongside the government agencies and regulatory bodies we serve, including RURA, GRA, NCA, POTRAZ, ARPCE, among others.
We specialize in the collection and analysis of huge volumes of often sensitive data to support the decision-making processes of governments and their agencies, making it essential for us to be able to offer our customers reliable data and to assure them that our data handling processes are fully compliant with best industry practices.
In our bid to ensure we meet the highest standards across the sectors we operate in, we strive to meet global industry standards, such as the ISO 27001 certification.
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Our efforts have seen us recognised several times receiving multiple awards for our solutions. Most recently, we were once again recognised by Digital Bankers Africa as the Most Innovative Regtech solutions provider 2023, for the second year in a row, as well as the Best Regtech solutions provider in East Africa 2023.
We are also recognised as one of the top 30 RegTech companies in the world in auditing firm Deloitte's RegTech Directory. Our value offer has evolved, reaching new and diverse market sectors.
Our technology and advisory services to government agencies constantly evolve as well, adapting to their growing needs for compliance, visibility, and economic sustainability.
Today, our core product offering extends far beyond the Voice Traffic Monitoring we used to provide at the beginning. Our world is changing fast. And our organization is embracing this evolution. The future holds infinite opportunities in the Regtech and SupTech arena. We look forward to seizing them.
What are some of the notable partnerships or collaborations that Global Voice Group has engaged in throughout its history, and how have these contributed to its success and impact on the global stage
We have engaged in several partnerships with organisations that have goals aligned to ours. These partnerships have helped us to share our expertise with agencies and countries that need it to boost their capabilities. Some of these include:
- GPSDD. In 2020, we announced a partnership through which GVG shares its expertise in the analysis of big data with national statistical offices across Africa, to support sustainable development initiatives. This collaboration, in many recent occasions has been executed in the form of capability building and knowledge transfer collaborations, which play a strategic role to promote the best industry practices and best standards and capabilities.
- ITU. Global Voice Group has been an active member through the ITU-T Standarization sector program for more than 5 years. It assembles experts from around the world to develop international standards known as ITU-T recommendations, which act as defining elements of the global infrastructure of information and communication technologies.
- Smart Africa Alliance. We have a long-standing partnership with Smart Africa and we fully support its mission to transform Africa into a single digital market.
