MTN South Africa has rolled out a model new digital id system using fingerprint and facial recognition know-how to substantiate prospects all through all its outlets, aiming to streamline sign-ups and in the reduction of fraud.
The telco says this switch is a crucial step in combating id theft and SIM swap scams, which contributed to R5.3 billion ($300 million) in telecom-related fraud in 2024, according to a July 2025 report by the Communication Risk Information Centre (Comric).
The rollout comes after a worthwhile six-month pilot all through 20% of its outlets, the place the know-how made it sooner to enroll new prospects and helped cease id fraud. MTN is now the first mobile operator in South Africa to implement this digital id at scale. MTN partnered with Vigilate AI, a worldwide agency that specialises in biometric know-how, to assemble the system.
“The deployment of this biometric system is part of our ongoing funding in innovation that makes our prospects’ lives less complicated, safer, and additional linked,” said Cornelia van Heerden, Authorities: Purchaser Operations, MTN South Africa. “We’ve reimagined the consumer journey to be faster, safer, and additional intuitive, with out compromising consolation.”
Daniel Hartwright, CEO of Vigilate AI, said the partnership with MTN is a gigantic step forward for secure purchaser verification in South Africa.
“By combining MTN’s deep purchaser notion and attain with our cutting-edge biometric know-how, we’re redefining what secure, customer-centric onboarding can appear as if,” said Hartwright. “This partnership models a model new benchmark for the telecoms commerce.”
“The ideas from our pilot outlets was overwhelmingly constructive,” added van Heerden. “Prospects praised the dramatically faster sign-up, error-free verification, and luxury of the model new course of. It’s a great occasion of how we’re using know-how to ship precise, tangible value.”
MTN says this rollout is part of its “MTN’s Ambition 2025 method” to information digital innovation in Africa and provide secure, future-ready firms.
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