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Insights & Analysis

Deep dives into AML transaction monitoring, KYC/KYB identity verification, computer vision, NLP for compliance, and building AI systems for Africa.

AML10 min read

Why Rule-Based AML Systems Fail: How ML Changes Everything

Most financial institutions still rely on static thresholds to detect money laundering. The result? Thousands of false alerts and sophisticated patterns slipping through. Here's why, and what ML changes.

March 2025

Building a PEP Database for 54 African Countries: Lessons from AfricaPEP

Case Study

February 202512 min read

Building a PEP Database for 54 African Countries: Lessons from AfricaPEP

Africa had no comprehensive open-source PEP database. We built one: 27,000+ profiles, FATF-compliant classification, hybrid fuzzy matching, and graph-powered relationship mapping.

Deepfake Detection in Production KYC: Lessons from 100K+ Verifications

Computer Vision

January 20259 min read

Deepfake Detection in Production KYC: Lessons from 100K+ Verifications

Research papers report 99% accuracy. Production reality is different. The failure modes nobody publishes, the adversarial attacks customers actually try, and the decisions that matter.

Graph Databases for Beneficial Ownership: Mapping UBO Networks with Neo4j

KYB

December 20248 min read

Graph Databases for Beneficial Ownership: Mapping UBO Networks with Neo4j

Shell companies, nominee directors, circular ownership: the structures hiding UBOs are graph problems. Why SQL fails and how Neo4j makes KYB compliance tractable.

Transaction Monitoring

November 202411 min read

From 10,000 False Alerts to 200: Rebuilding Transaction Monitoring with ML

When 95% of your AML alerts are false positives, your compliance team isn't investigating, they're drowning. How we rebuilt a monitoring system from scratch.

Entity Resolution at Scale: Matching Names Across Languages, Scripts, and Borders

NLP

October 20248 min read

Entity Resolution at Scale: Matching Names Across Languages, Scripts, and Borders

How to match names across Arabic, French, English, and African language transliterations for PEP and sanctions screening at scale.

Building Autonomous Compliance Agents with LangGraph

AI Agents

September 202410 min read

Building Autonomous Compliance Agents with LangGraph

Five specialized AI agents that conduct full KYC/AML investigations autonomously: from alert triage to SAR drafting. The architecture, the guardrails, and what we learned.

Africa's Identity Verification Challenge: Why AI Is the Only Scalable Answer

Thought Leadership

August 20247 min read

Africa's Identity Verification Challenge: Why AI Is the Only Scalable Answer

500 million Africans lack formal ID. National databases are fragmented. Traditional KYC will never reach Africa's unbanked: only AI-first systems built for African realities will.

Llama.cpp: Democratizing Large Language Models

Technical

August 20245 min read

Llama.cpp: Democratizing Large Language Models

How llama.cpp enables running advanced AI language models on consumer hardware, no supercomputer required.

Transitioning from Chemistry to Computer Science: My Journey into AI

Personal

June 20246 min read

Transitioning from Chemistry to Computer Science: My Journey into AI

From test tubes to neural networks: how a career pivot led me to discover my true passion in artificial intelligence and machine learning.