In a groundbreaking partnership, regtech platform pawaPass has teamed up with sports and technology brand Mchezo to launch an economic inclusion initiative aimed at providing investment opportunities to betPawa’s dedicated customer base in Africa. This collaboration will facilitate the distribution of $2 million worth of shares among over 200,000 committed customers of betPawa.
The partnership follows pawaPass’s recent acquisition of a Trust & Corporate Service Provider [TCSP] license from the Rwandan Central Bank [BNR], ensuring a secure and compliant execution of the share distribution process.
Founded in 2022 by Sylvia Brune, pawaPass is revolutionizing online fraud and abuse prevention in Africa through a unique combination of low-touch data points, non-ID-based user verification, and highly accurate anti-duplication technology. The company’s cutting-edge face and document verification tool, which adheres to the highest security and encryption standards, positions pawaPass as a trusted custodian of shares.
This initiative aims to empower end-consumers across 11 African markets, specifically the customers of betPawa, a sports betting brand owned by Mchezo. Since early 2022, pawaPass and Mchezo have been working together to develop a state-of-the-art solution that redefines economic inclusion within the African market, with the rollout set to begin this month.
The TCSP license, introduced by the Rwandan Central Bank in September 2022, confirms pawaPass’s commitment to rigorous security, governance, and compliance standards in both local and international regulatory frameworks. Undergoing a thorough review process, typically concluded within a month, pawaPass has met the criteria for this credential. With the license, pawaPass gains enhanced authority to safeguard and manage assets on behalf of third parties, a critical function in administering the share distribution for betPawa customers.
Sylvia Brune, CEO of pawaPass, expressed her enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “Conventionally, the process of onboarding investors and safeguarding assets in line with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards is a costly and manual process that makes it impossible for micro-shareholders to own digital assets like shares. In our quest to make this process more efficient and scalable, we ended up embarking on the TCSP licensing journey to create a bespoke solution for Mchezo that both verifies those selected to become micro-shareholders and safeguards their shares.”
Kresten Buch, a Director at Mchezo, expressed his excitement about the collaboration, saying, “For years, we have wanted to make our loyal customers co-owners of the betPawa brand because they are the reason we exist. But doing this in a compliant, secure, and cost-effective way has been very difficult, so we are excited that pawaPass has provided us with a way to finally make this possible.”
Access to the formal economy and its associated opportunities has been a challenge for individuals in sub-Saharan Africa, with nearly half of the population lacking basic identity documents. pawaPass’s approach aims to bridge this gap, enabling a demographic that has traditionally been excluded from digital financial systems to attain shareholder status. This initiative represents a significant step towards dismantling systemic barriers to economic inclusion and creating a landscape where access to identification is no longer a prerequisite for financial empowerment.
Malik Shaffy, a Rwandan entrepreneur who recently joined pawaPass as a Board Director, emphasized the importance of scalable and inclusive solutions in allocating shares to a large number of people across multiple African markets. Shaffy stated, “Allocating approximately $10 of shares to over 200,000 people across multiple African markets demands solutions that are fraud and abuse-proof but also scalable and inclusive. We needed to create a simple yet fraud-proof biometric user verification system accompanied by a digital ‘safe’ designed to oversee the safeguarding of shares. As a result, individuals with the most basic smartphones and lacking access to official identification can confidently own and access their assets without compromising security. As an entrepreneur, the drive to build innovative solutions that protect and include all is what excited me to join the pawaPass board.”
The collaboration between pawaPass and Mchezo sets the stage for a significant advancement in economic inclusion in Africa. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions, this partnership aims to empower thousands of individuals to participate in the economic landscape with confidence and ease.
