Much of the world's attention is on the highs and lows of cryptocurrencies. FlexID reminds us that distributed ledger technology can be used to offer trusted records of identities without the need for a centralized authority.
Zimbabwe's FlexID is a startup that is building a system for people who are excluded from the banking system due to their lack of identity documents. FlexID's idea has won funding from the creator of the Turing Award-winning Turing Award-winning cryptographer. The size of the investment was not disclosed by the two parties.
Over the past decade, African countries have made great strides in promoting financial inclusion. According to the World Bank, more than half of adults in Africa are unbanked.
The numbers were more stark a few years ago. In Zimbabwe, only 30% of the adult population had access to any financial services. The country has 1.5 million bank accounts.
Increasing access to financial services in a country leads to improved economic welfare. The Zimbabwean government introduced a financial inclusion scheme from 2016 to 2020.
The Zimbabwean adult population with access to financial services increased to 45%, while the number of bank accounts increased to 8.5 million.
There is still a lot of work to be done. Achieving optimal financial inclusion can be difficult if people don't know about certain financial services or don't have formal identification documents.
Africa and emerging markets are affected by these issues. In Africa, where other upstarts provide centralized solutions, FlexID's self-sovereign identity (SSI) platform takes adecentralization approach and gives users control over their personal information.
FlexID said in an announcement that it aims to make its network available in emerging markets where over one billion people don't have formal identification. Victor Mapunga founded FlexID out of frustration with the banking system.
FlexID gives users a wallet that stores their credentials. Verification is done on-chain through Algorand, which claims to be a solution to the trilemma of security, scalability, and decentralization. FlexID will be integrating with other apps.
FlexID's investment comes at a time when African startups are making a lot of money. A recent report said that over 40 AfricanBlockchain startups raised a total of $127 million. Mara's $23 million seed round from investors like FTX and Coinbase is one of the eye-catching investments this year.
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