Why we ask for your documents

"Why are you asking for my ID card when I am the one receiving the money?" It is a fair question and it deserves better than a pointer to the terms of service. Here is the full answer: what is asked, why, and what becomes of your documents.

What this check is not

It is not a test of trust. It is not an assessment of your business. And it is not a commercial data grab: the documents you send serve exactly one purpose, establishing who is collecting.

It is also not a prerequisite for integrating. Your account works from sign-up in test mode: you build, you exercise your error paths, you plug in your notifications. Verification gates one thing only, the opening of live mode.

What is asked, depending on your account

The file depends on the nature of your business. It is not long, but the items marked mandatory really are: until they are there, the file cannot be submitted.

If you are a company

The trade register entry (RCCM) - the document issued by the registry, with a readable number.
The taxpayer registration certificate (NIU) - taxpayer card or certificate carrying your unique identification number.
The director's identity document - a valid national ID card or passport of the person who commits the company.

Two items are optional but often speed things up: the articles of association and a proof of address for the business - an electricity or water bill, or a commercial lease, less than three months old.

If you are a sole trader

Your national ID card, front and back - the front for identity, the back for the signature and place of issue.
Proof of activity - a taxpayer certificate, a business licence, a screenshot of your online shop, or any document showing what you sell.

Proof of address is optional: an electricity or water bill less than three months old.

That last point deserves underlining, because it surprises people: "any document showing what you sell" is meant literally. A screenshot of your sales page, your catalogue or your app does the job. We are not looking for a stamped paper, we are looking to understand your business.

Why it is necessary

Because the operator cuts you off. A gateway that opens accounts in two minutes and never checks who is behind them ends up collecting for fraudsters. When that happens, it is not only the fraudster who gets sanctioned: it is the aggregator, and with it every merchant on the platform. These checks therefore also protect your ability to collect tomorrow.

Because the money has to go back to the right place. We pay out to a Mobile Money number. Without knowing who legitimately owns the merchant account, we could not refuse a change of number requested by someone who had taken over your mailbox. Identity verification is what makes that refusal possible.

Because it is the rule. Payment services are required to identify their customers. This is not a local quirk or a house invention.

Because your customers deserve it. A buyer paying on a page in our colours has the right to know there is an identifiable human being at the other end.

What happens to your documents

This is the part people talk about least, and it is the part that matters.

They are never public. Files are stored in private storage, outside the web root. No URL reaches them directly; only your account and the people handling verification can open them, through a controlled access.
The filename is regenerated entirely. The original name is kept for display only and never touches the filesystem.
The type is read from the content, not the extension. A file announced as .jpg may well contain something else entirely. Only JPEG, PNG, WEBP and PDF are accepted, up to 5 MB.
A digest is computed on receipt. It lets us check later that the document being viewed is the one you sent.
A new document replaces the previous one of the same type. The file stays readable for whoever reviews it, and there are not ten versions of the same ID card lying around.
Deleting removes the file. Pulling a document out of your file erases it from disk. No orphaned ID cards.

What we never ask you for

Three requests are always fraud, whoever appears to be making them:

Your Mobile Money PIN. Never, for any reason. That code is entered on the operator's network and nowhere else.
A payment to unlock your account. Verification costs nothing. There is no file fee and no priority handling to buy.
Your documents through an unofficial channel. Upload them from your account, not to a number that contacted you first on a messaging app.

If you receive a message that breaks one of those three rules, it did not come from us.

How the review goes

Your file passes through four states.

Incomplete - mandatory items are missing. You cannot submit it yet.
Pending - you declared the file complete and it is in the review queue. Your test keys keep working as usual.
Approved - live mode opens and your account becomes active. Approval of the file is what triggers that opening, nothing else.
Rejected - with a written reason. A rejection is not a closed door: re-sending the item at fault puts the file back in review automatically.

If an already-active account has its file rejected, it drops back to pending. We do not let a file we have just rejected keep collecting real money - unpleasant in the moment, and the only defensible position.

What saves time

Most rejections are about photo quality, not about the substance of the file. A few habits are enough:

Photograph flat, in daylight, no flash and no glare.
Frame all four corners of the document.
Check that the numbers - RCCM, NIU, document number - are still readable once the image is resized.
Send documents that are still valid.
Make sure the holder of the payout number matches the file.

And above all: prepare the file while you integrate, not after. The two run in parallel, and that is what shortens the gap between signing up and your first real collection.