Overview
One company. Four platforms. Millions of verifications.
Identify Africa is a Nairobi-based identity verification and compliance infrastructure company;
the only provider offering a full-stack KYC, KYB, KYE, and AML solution across 12+ African markets
through a single API. Think Stripe or Plaid, but built with African data depth at the core.
As the sole designer, I own the end-to-end product design across every touchpoint, from the marketing
website through to the internal compliance dashboards, verification flows, and the no-code DataFlow platform.
Every screen a client sees was designed by me.
How do you design a compliance product that feels trustworthy and effortless for enterprise clients who've never had this experience built for Africa before?
The Challenge
Compliance products are usually painful. This one had to be different
KYC and compliance tools have a reputation: dense, intimidating, built for regulators, not for the humans who have to use them daily. Identify Africa needed products that felt premium and trustworthy without being cold, and powerful without being complex.
The business problem
Enterprise clients needed to run identity checks across multiple African databases but existing tools were fragmented, slow, and not built for African data sources.
The design problem
How do you make a product that handles sensitive compliance data feel fast, approachable, and worth trusting, especially for clients new to digital KYC?
Platform 01 · KYC Platform
Designing for compliance without the friction
The KYC platform is Identify Africa's core product, enabling businesses to verify individual and company identities in real-time against government databases, run AML and PEP screenings, and manage ongoing compliance.
Key design decisions
- Designed a progressive disclosure model, surface the essentials upfront, let power users go deeper. Reduces cognitive load for compliance officers managing hundreds of checks daily.
- Verification result states were designed to be instantly scannable: clear pass/fail/review states with colour and iconography, not just text labels.
- The onboarding flow was built to mirror the compliance officer's mental model: start with the check type, add the subject, review results. No jargon, no dead ends.
Platform 02 · DataFlow
No-code compliance workflows: drag, drop, deploy
DataFlow is Identify Africa's most ambitious product; a no-code workflow builder that lets compliance teams design and deploy custom verification flows without writing a single line of code. It moves the company from a verification vendor to a compliance operating system.
Key design decisions
- Canvas-based builder with node + connector logic — clear visual representation of how verification steps chain together.
- Built a live preview mode so compliance officers can simulate a client session before going live; critical for reducing go-live errors.
- The analytics layer surfaces drop-off points per workflow step, so clients can optimize their verification funnels over time.
Platform 03 · KYE Platform
Know Your Employee: background screening, redesigned
The KYE (Know Your Employee) platform handles employee background screening covering criminal records, education verification, employment history, and more — at 30% below market rate. The design challenge was making a sensitive, high-stakes process feel efficient and dignified for both the employer and the subject.
For the employer
A clean request dashboard with real-time status tracking, so HR teams always know where a screening is in the process without chasing anyone.
For the subject
A transparent consent and submission flow making the screening process feel trustworthy and respectful rather than opaque and anxiety-inducing.
Platform 04 · Marketing Website
A website that sells enterprise trust at first glance
identifyafrica.io needed to convert enterprise decision-makers; CTOs, compliance officers, CFOs, in a sector where trust is everything. The design language had to signal premium, secure, and African-forward without defaulting to generic fintech aesthetics.
