The rapid expansion of the African digital economy has opened up immense opportunities for businesses, financial institutions, and everyday users. Across the continent, digital payments, mobile banking, and online commerce have revolutionised the way people live and conduct business. However, this massive digital expansion comes with a significant challenge of security and regulatory compliance. For many young companies and established institutions alike, navigating complex financial laws, data privacy regulations, and cyber threats can often be daunting.
This is the challenge that Smartcomply, a Nigerian compliance and cybersecurity technology company, set out to solve. At the centre of its recent growth stands Gbemisola Osunrinde, its Chief Executive Officer. Under her leadership, the company has built tools that help banks and payment firms detect financial crime in real time, meet local rules, and build real trust with customers and regulators.
The Founder Behind the Vision
At the heart of Smartcomply is Gbemisola Osunrinde, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. She is a highly respected figure in Africa’s cybersecurity and compliance space, with over eleven years of experience in information security and technology. Her journey into this field began with a strong academic foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Management from the prestigious University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s degree in Information and Communication Technology from Covenant University in Nigeria. She is also certified in CEH and ISO 27001, which are important professional credentials in the world of cybersecurity.
Before founding Smartcomply, Gbemisola held key roles at several prominent organisations, including Inlaks, MainOne, Cybervergent, and Esentry. In these positions, she was responsible for spearheading cybersecurity strategies, risk mitigation, and compliance programmes for enterprises undergoing digital transformation. It was during this time that she experienced firsthand the difficulties businesses face when trying to comply with regulations. She has described this period as living through “manual compliance hell,” which inspired her to build a better solution.
The Birth of Smartcomply
Smartcomply was founded in 2021. The company was created to address a critical gap in the African market: the lack of affordable, effective, and locally relevant technology to help businesses manage compliance, risk, and security. Gbemisola Osunrinde and her team recognised that many businesses were struggling to keep up with overlapping requirements covering data protection, anti-money laundering, know-your-customer processes, cybersecurity, and third-party risk. They also saw that many of the compliance tools available on the market were built for European or North American markets and did not work well in the African context, often misreading mobile money flows and local transaction patterns.
Smartcomply set out to change this by building a technology ecosystem that combines compliance, risk management, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention within a single platform. The company’s approach is to provide businesses with the tools they need to operate with control and confidence, no matter where they are on the continent.
A Suite of Powerful Solutions
Over the years, Smartcomply has developed a range of products designed to meet the diverse needs of its clients. The company’s flagship platforms are Adhere and Seequre, which serve more than one hundred financial institutions across Africa.
Adhere is an artificial intelligence-powered platform for anti-money laundering, know-your-customer verification, and fraud detection. This platform is particularly important because it helps financial institutions automate their compliance processes. It offers real-time transaction monitoring, automated customer checks, sanctions and politically exposed persons screening, risk assessment, case management, and automated regulatory reporting. What makes Adhere truly special is that it is purpose-built for the African regulatory environment and integrated with national identity infrastructure, including Nigeria’s Bank Verification Number and National Identification Number. This means it understands the local context and can more accurately detect suspicious activities.
Seequre, on the other hand, is designed for governance, risk management, and cybersecurity compliance. The company also offers Oculus, a threat intelligence tool, and Smartcomply Academy, which provides compliance education and training. This comprehensive suite of products allows Smartcomply to serve a wide range of industries, including financial institutions, healthcare organisations, and telecommunications providers.
Meeting Regulatory Challenges Head-On
One of Smartcomply’s most significant achievements came in March 2026, when the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a new circular requiring all banks, mobile money operators, and other regulated financial institutions to deploy automated anti-money laundering solutions. The new rules required institutions to meet twelve categories of minimum standards within eighteen to twenty-four months.
Smartcomply was well-prepared for this development. The company announced that its Adhere platform already met the baseline standards set by the regulator. Gbemisola Osunrinde explained that the platform was built to solve exactly the challenge the central bank was now mandating every financial institution to address. She noted that institutions that move quickly would likely adopt systems built for local regulatory conditions, rather than trying to adapt foreign solutions. This proactive approach positioned Smartcomply as a leader in the Nigerian compliance technology space.
Expanding Beyond Nigeria’s Borders
Smartcomply’s ambitions extend far beyond Nigeria. In May 2026, the company registered to operate in the United Kingdom and launched its Adhere platform there. The UK launch was aimed at electronic money institutions, remittance firms, neobanks, and cross-border payment fintechs that move money between the UK and African markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda. This expansion shows how African fintech growth is creating a new compliance market outside the continent. UK banks and remittance companies want access to African payment corridors, but they often face high compliance costs and uncertainty over local identity systems. Smartcomply is betting that compliance software built around African data can reduce that friction.
The company also made Nairobi its East Africa hub in early 2026. Kenya’s digital economy is advanced and rapidly expanding, but it also faces significant cyber threats. By establishing a presence in Kenya, Smartcomply is well-positioned to serve the East African market.
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Gaining Global Recognition
Smartcomply’s work has not gone unnoticed on the global stage. In June 2026, the company joined the PCI Security Standards Council as an Associate Participating Organisation. This made Smartcomply one of the first Nigerian companies in the cybersecurity and compliance technology category to formally contribute to the development of the world’s most influential payment data security standards. Gbemisola Osunrinde described this membership as an important milestone in the company’s journey to build secure and scalable compliance infrastructure for financial institutions across emerging and global markets. The move allows Smartcomply to bring African operational realities into the global standards conversation.
Earlier in 2026, Smartcomply was also named a verified member of the Mastercard Engage Partner Program. These achievements demonstrate the company’s growing reputation and its commitment to improving payment security and compliance worldwide.
The Philosophy of Digital Trust
Gbemisola Osunrinde has a clear and compelling vision for Smartcomply. She believes that the role of compliance is shifting from a regulatory obligation to a broader business requirement. In her view, businesses are no longer asking only what they need to submit to a regulator. They are asking whether they can trust their systems, their people, their partners, and the businesses they transact with. This shift comes as African companies increasingly rely on digital infrastructure to serve customers and enter new markets, making trust a central part of digital expansion.
The company’s pitch is that organisations should be able to measure and manage their exposure continuously, rather than wait for an audit, breach, or regulatory intervention to reveal weaknesses. By providing businesses with the tools to proactively manage risk, Smartcomply is helping to build a more secure and trustworthy digital economy across Africa.
More Than One Billion US Dollars in Monthly Transaction Volume Monitored
As of 2026, Smartcomply’s Adhere platform monitors more than one billion US dollars in monthly transaction volume across African markets. The company plans to deepen its presence in Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire. With its strong leadership, innovative technology, and commitment to the African market, Smartcomply is well on its way to becoming a cornerstone of the continent’s digital infrastructure.
Gbemisola Osunrinde and her team have shown that African startups can build world-class technology solutions that address local challenges while competing on the global stage. Their story is an inspiring example of how innovation, hard work, and a deep understanding of local needs can create lasting value for businesses and communities across the continent. As Africa’s digital economy continues to grow, the work of startups like Smartcomply will become ever more important in ensuring that this growth is safe, secure, and sustainable.
