Entersekt Teams With Cellulant For More Secure Digital Banking

South African FinTech company Entersekt is partnering with African FinTech Cellulant to bring enhanced cybersecurity to mobile banking and digital payments.

Schalk Nolte, chief executive officer of Entersekt, said in a statement on Tuesday (Nov. 24) that the collaboration with Cellulant will help “drive consumer confidence in digital banking and boost the adoption of digital payments on the continent.”

A Kaspersky survey indicated that 47% of banking customers in the META region (Middle East, Turkey and Africa) were victims of some type of bank fraud in the first six months of this year. Banking app security was especially problematic, according to the statement.

“Banking apps belong to the most security-critical and data-sensitive app category,” researchers said in a study of 693 banking apps across 83 countries, including 49 apps from banks in Africa. More than 2,100 weaknesses were discovered in the tested apps.

The two companies are collaborating to integrate Entersekt’s mobile software development kit with Cellulant’s product stack.

“Our clients trust us to not only be constantly innovating around digital banking and payments, but also to guarantee safety and security. Being able to provide the powerful security and authentication services of Entersekt will significantly add to our platform offering,” said George Murage, chief technology officer at Cellulant.

He added that as a team, the two companies can deliver “some of the most sophisticated services available anywhere in the world.”

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online banking. PYMNTS research last week showed that people are 8.7 percent more likely to use mobile banking apps now than they were last year.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Mzukisi Rusi, head of technology delivery in North America at Entersekt, said that the move to digital banking started before the pandemic and had been focusing on improving user experience and preventing fraud.

Last year, Cellulant started building a comprehensive “catch-all app” for African consumers called Mula and rebranded as Tingg. It offers a single app in eight African markets for digital services, including bill payments, remittances, lending and more.