Zimbabwe’s financial sector is moving fast toward fully digital onboarding, driven by regulatory reforms, biometric verification, and national digital ID initiatives. Solutions like VOVE ID are helping fintechs and banks meet these KYC requirements efficiently, enabling fast, compliant customer verification at scale. For fintechs, mobile money operators, lenders, crypto platforms and payment companies, Know Your Customer obligations are now more detailed and more strictly enforced than ever before. This 2025 guide explains the core KYC requirements in Zimbabwe, the latest updates from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, how national digital ID programs are reshaping verification, and what businesses must do to stay compliant while onboarding customers at scale.

Regulatory Framework for KYC in Zimbabwe

Key Laws and Regulators

KYC obligations are defined by a set of laws and supervisory bodies, including:

• Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
  Oversees KYC rules for banks, fintechs, PSPs and mobile money operators.
• Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)
  Enforces AML and CFT requirements and investigates suspicious activity.
• Banking Act, AML Act and related RBZ Policy Positions
  Outline mandatory customer due diligence, reporting and monitoring duties.
• POTRAZ and the Ministry of ICT
  Oversee digital identity infrastructure, SIM registration and interoperability.
• ZimDigital ID Program
  Zimbabwe’s core national digital identity initiative, moving into roll-out phases.

Together, these institutions form the backbone of KYC and AML enforcement in the country.

Major KYC Updates for 2024–2025

Directive RU 2024/02

Directive RU 2024/02 is one of the most important changes in Zimbabwe’s KYC landscape. It authorised remote onboarding with biometric verification for banks, fintechs and mobile money providers.

In 2025, the directive became part of RBZ’s broader digital transformation agenda. During the Zimswitch Symposium in September 2025, the regulator confirmed that RU 2024/02 now feeds into a unified digital ID API project. This initiative connects RBZ, POTRAZ and the Ministry of ICT and is designed to allow financial institutions to query identity data through a single government-backed API. The goal is to reduce duplication, lower onboarding costs and support real-time identity verification across the financial sector.

The directive also integrates with early unified KYC API pilots, allowing banks and fintechs to share verified identity data without requiring customers to submit documents multiple times.

ZimDigital ID

ZimDigital ID is central to Zimbabwe’s digital transformation. The platform is in advanced testing and already integrated into more than five pilot deployments, including NMB Bank and Steward Bank. Early adopters in fintech and mobile money are testing biometric API endpoints that support face matching, ID validation and seamless digital onboarding flows.

GSMA and TechZim reports from 2025 confirm that ZimDigital ID is expected to expand across regulated industries, enabling consistent KYC standards and easier cross-institution identity checks. For fintechs, this shift means faster onboarding, fewer manual reviews and stronger fraud controls.

KYC Requirements for Regulated Businesses in Zimbabwe

Customer Due Diligence (CDD)

Regulated entities must verify customer identities using approved documents and verification methods. The standard requirements include:

• National ID or passport
• Biometric verification when applicable
• Proof of address (bank statement or utility bill)
• Source of funds or source of income where relevant
• Mobile number verification

Remote onboarding is permitted as long as the institution follows RBZ guidelines on biometric capture, liveness detection and anti-fraud safeguards.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)

EDD is mandatory for higher-risk situations, such as:

• Politically exposed persons
• Large transactions inconsistent with customer profiles
• Cross-border transfers
• Customers located in jurisdictions flagged by FATF

EDD may include enhanced monitoring, additional documentation or stronger identity verification measures.

Record-Keeping Rules

Zimbabwe requires regulated businesses to retain KYC documentation for seven years, based on the RBZ AML Guidelines of 2023. This applies to:

• Customer identification documents
• Digital onboarding logs
• Screening results
• Risk assessments
• Transaction histories
• Electronic audit logs

While FATF Recommendation 11 only requires five years, Zimbabwe extended the retention period to seven in alignment with ESAAMLG recommendations and regional AML expectations. The requirement explicitly includes AI-driven monitoring logs and electronic evidence captured during automated risk assessments.

The Role of Mobile Money in KYC Enforcement

Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s most active digital payments markets. There are more than 15 million active mobile connections, and mobile wallets reach over 90 percent adoption according to GSMA and Findex 2025. This places telecom operators and mobile money providers at the center of KYC implementation.

Mobile money transaction volumes increased by 23 percent in 2025 based on Econet’s annual report. This growth is partly driven by wider 5G rollouts, rising e-commerce usage and the shift to cashless services. Due to this scale, RBZ continues to apply strict KYC and AML monitoring standards to wallet providers, including mandatory biometric onboarding, SIM registration alignment and continuous transaction screening.

Challenges Businesses Face With KYC in Zimbabwe

Fragmented identity systems

Until ZimDigital ID and the unified API reach full national coverage, institutions often rely on multiple data sources, which slows down onboarding and increases verification costs.

Document forgery and synthetic identities

Manual checks remain prone to human error. Biometric verification reduces risk, but adoption is still uneven across smaller financial entities.

High fraud and mobile money abuse

The FIU has strengthened reporting requirements due to increased cases of identity fraud and transaction laundering in the digital payments ecosystem.

Regulatory expectations rising quickly

Fintechs must keep up with evolving RBZ directives, FIU notices and national digital ID initiatives, which are updated frequently.

How VOVE ID Supports KYC Compliance in Zimbabwe

VOVE ID helps businesses meet Zimbabwe’s KYC obligations with automated and compliant verification workflows. The platform offers:

• Face and document verification powered by biometrics
• API integrations aligned with ZimDigital ID’s evolving standards
• Automated AML screening and risk scoring
• Real-time fraud detection and liveness checks
• Scalable onboarding built for high-volume mobile money markets

This allows fintechs, banks and payment providers to onboard customers instantly, reduce fraud risk and stay compliant with RBZ and FIU expectations.

Conclusion

Zimbabwe’s KYC landscape is modernising quickly, shaped by regulatory reform, increasing mobile money penetration and major national digital ID projects. Directive RU 2024/02, the ZimDigital ID rollout and the unified digital ID API are opening the door to efficient, frictionless onboarding across the financial sector. Regulated businesses that adopt compliant digital verification processes now will be better prepared for the next phase of RBZ and FIU supervision.

Fintechs and mobile money operators that rely on scalable, automated KYC solutions like VOVE ID can reduce operational complexity, stay ahead of regulatory changes and deliver a faster, more secure user experience.