Privacy Policy

Introduction

At Akafay, your privacy matters. As a customer app, we collect, use, and protect personal information about individuals who download and use the Akafay application, explore its features, or otherwise engage with our services.

This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) explains how Akafay (referred to as “we,” “us,” or “our”) manages your personal data. It applies to all natural persons who interact directly with the Akafay App (the “Platform”), whether you are creating an account, making purchases, accessing credit, or simply browsing.

We are committed to safeguarding your information and being transparent about how it is handled. Our goal is to ensure that you understand what data we collect, why we collect it, and how we protect it so you can use Akafay with confidence, knowing your privacy is respected at every step.

By downloading, accessing, or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Purpose of this Notice

The purpose of this Notice is to provide insight into our privacy practices and explain the types of Personal Data we collect and process about you from various sources. This Privacy Notice covers the following:

What Personal Data we collect
How we use your Personal Data
What gives us the right to use your Personal Data
Processing of Personal Data requiring your explicit consent
Who we share your information with
Where we store your information
Payment processing details
How we protect your information
How long we retain your information
Your rights regarding your Personal Data
Changes to this Notice

What Personal Data Do We Collect?

Information You Provide to Us

When you use our Platform for example, to create an account, access our services, make a purchase using Akafay, or contact us, we collect information directly from you. This may include:

Identity and contact details: your full name, email address, residential address, phone number, date of birth, and National ID.
Financial details: your bank account information that you enter
Communications: records of our interactions, including emails, phone calls, text messages, and in-app messages, whether initiated by you or us.
Feedback and Support Requests: When you contact us for support or submit feedback, you provide your name, email address, and the content of your message. Chat interactions may be recorded for quality assurance.
Office Visits: If you visit our offices, you may provide your name, contact details, employer information, and any visitor information required for security or access.

Information We Receive From Others:

We work with trusted third parties like retailers, business partners, advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers, Government entities. We may receive information about you from these sources, including:

We work with trusted third parties such as retailers, business partners, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, and government entities. We may receive information about you from these sources, including:

Marketing and Lead Information: we may receive your name, email address, job title, employer information, or other contact details from referral partners, event hosts, or marketing platforms that believe you may be interested in Akafay’s services.
Merchant or Business Ecosystem Partners: if you engage with Akafay through a merchant or financial partner, they may provide verification details, contact information, or account-related data needed for onboarding, security, and service delivery. We may also receive information related to your credit behavior, installment repayment patterns, and overall transactional history to assess eligibility for financing, manage risk, and improve service quality.
Compliance and Verification Sources: where required by law or for fraud prevention, we may receive identity verification results or compliance information from authorized verification providers or regulatory systems, including integrations with Ethiopia’s National ID and KYC services.
KYC Verification: we use third-party services, such as the Ethiopian National ID (NID) system, to verify your identity. You may be asked to provide government-issued identification and, in some cases, a selfie to match against your ID. Your use of this verification service is governed by the respective organization’s terms and privacy policy.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you use our Platform, we automatically collect certain information to help us improve our services, enhance user experience, and ensure security. This includes:

Technical information: your IP address, login information, browser type and version, installed plug-ins, device ID and settings, operating system, hardware version, and your mobile operator or internet service provider (ISP).
Usage information: details about your interactions with our Platform, including the full web addresses (URLs) you visit, navigation paths to and from our site, date and time of visits, products viewed or searched for, time spent on specific pages, and actions such as scrolling, clicking, or hovering. We also collect information about how you leave a page, as well as the phone number or social media account you used to contact our customer support team.
Location data: information about your geographic location derived from GPS, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth signals. This may include precise coordinates (latitude and longitude), your country or region (determined from your IP address), and your device’s unique advertising identifier such as Android ID or Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). These may be collected in combination with your device ID to help us recognize your device or browser when you return to our Platform. You can choose to opt out of location sharing at any time through your device settings.
In-App Browser Usage: data related to your activity within our in-app browser, including the URLs you visit while browsing through it.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use first-party cookies and tracking tools to remember your preferences, analyze usage, improve performance, and enhance your experience. We may also use third-party analytics or advertising technologies to understand behavior and deliver relevant content.
Device and Technical Information: When you access Akafay, we collect device identifiers, browser type, operating system, IP address, page views, session duration, referring pages, click behavior, and timestamps.
App Usage Information: We collect your username, login activity, interaction patterns, and feature-usage data to operate the app, improve functionality, and ensure security.
Security and Office Systems: If you visit Akafay offices, security cameras and access systems may automatically collect video footage and visit metadata as part of standard security operations.

How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

We use your Personal Data in the following ways:

When you browse our Platform:

We use automatically collected information to:

Understand how you use our Platform and identify ways to improve it.
Ensure content is presented in the most effective manner for you and your device.
Provide you with the information, products, and services you request, or that we believe may interest you.

When you create and use an account with us:

We use your contact details, identity information, login details, financial information, credit and verification data, and automatically collected information to:

Create and manage your account.
Authenticate your identity and verify eligibility.
Conduct credit checks and receive results from authorized providers.
Process financial transactions related to your payments.
Provide aggregated reporting and manage obligations with shareholders, investors, and finance partners.
Identify you when signing in and grant appropriate access to the Platform.
Enforce or apply our terms or other agreements with you.
Notify you about changes to our services.

We may use profiling and automated decision-making to determine whether to verify and approve your account, including based on your credit history. If you would like more information, please contact us.

When you contact or engage with us:

We use your contact details, identity, login details, financial information, credit verification, and communications information to:

Provide customer support, including troubleshooting issues and responding to your requests.
Deliver the information, products, and services you request.

For marketing and advertising purposes:

We may use your contact details, marketing preferences, and automatically collected information to:

Send promotional communications via email, SMS, in-app alerts, or phone.
Gather your opinions through surveys or market research.
Understand how you interact with our services.
Provide personalized recommendations, promotional updates, and marketing to improve your experience.
Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of advertising and deliver relevant ads.

We may use profiling and automated decision-making to provide you with relevant information and product recommendations. This is done either in our legitimate interests (where your rights are not overridden) or with your prior consent.

When maintaining and improving our Platform:

We may use your account information, marketing and advertising data, and automatically collected information (including location data) to:

Administer our Platform and support internal operations such as audits, troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, and surveys.
Evaluate and improve our products and services, including developing and testing new features.
Keep our Platform safe and secure, and detect or prevent errors, fraud, or other criminal activity.
Ensure content is displayed effectively for your device and alert you to hardware or software incompatibilities.
Enable you to participate in interactive features of our services, if you choose to do so.

We do this in our legitimate interest, provided your rights are not overridden, and also to comply with legal obligations.

Additional Uses of Personal Data

Account Creation and Service Delivery: We use your information to create and maintain your Akafay account, authenticate identity, verify eligibility, and provide access to financing, merchant interactions, dashboards, and other platform features.
Identity Verification, Compliance, and Security: We use personal and biometric data to comply with Ethiopian KYC requirements, verify identity, prevent fraud, and ensure secure financial transactions while protecting against malicious or illegal activity.
Business Client and Merchant Support: We use business contact information to manage partnerships, process agreements, provide integrations, resolve support requests, and maintain operational communication.
Improving Our App, Website, and Services: We use cookies, tracking tools, and performance data to enhance functionality, personalize experiences, optimize navigation, streamline transactions, and debug or repair errors.
Analytics and Advertising: We use analytics and, where permitted with consent, third-party tracking data to understand user behavior, measure performance, and deliver relevant advertising or content.
Customer Support and Communication: We use your feedback and support messages to respond to inquiries, resolve issues, improve services, and enhance satisfaction, with chat interactions recorded for quality improvement.
Device and Technical Operations: We use technical information such as device identifiers, IP address, and browsing behavior to maintain functionality, detect suspicious activity, prevent fraud, and ensure system security.
Marketing and Outreach: With consent where required, we use contact details to send marketing communications, product updates, promotions, and other relevant information.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance: We use data to comply with legal obligations, establish or exercise rights, and defend against legal claims.
Internal Administration: We use data for internal administrative purposes and to manage organizational relationships.
Office Security: We use visitor logs and video surveillance during office visits for safety, access control, and security monitoring.
Other Purposes with Consent: We use your information for additional purposes only when you provide consent

This Privacy Policy does not apply in the following situations:

Depersonalized data: Our collection, use, or disclosure of data that has been anonymized or aggregated so it can no longer identify you.
Third‑party websites or platforms: Websites not owned or operated by Akafay or its parent company, Decentral Technologies, even if they are linked from an Akafay site or app. For example, when using Akafay functionalities embedded within a bank’s application, the privacy notice of that third‑party website or platform applies. Akafay is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such third parties.
Third‑party business processing: Our collection, use, or disclosure of personal data carried out solely on behalf of another business. In these cases, the privacy notice of the third‑party business governs how your data is handled.

What Gives Us the Right to Use Your Personal Data

Akafay processes your Personal Data only where we have a valid legal basis to do so. These bases include:

To fulfill our agreement with you – We collect, store, and process your Personal Data when it is necessary to perform the contract you have with us (such as our Terms and Conditions) or when you ask us to take steps before entering into that contract.
Legitimate business interests – We process your Personal Data to operate and improve Akafay’s services, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights. Our legitimate interests include:
- Providing you with the products, services, and features you request.
- Sending promotional updates and marketing communications (unless you opt out).
- Delivering personalized recommendations and improving your experience on the Platform.
- Understanding how customers use Akafay to develop, test, and enhance our services.
- Measuring and improving the effectiveness of advertising and communications.
- Maintaining the safety, security, and integrity of our Platform.
- Supporting internal operations such as troubleshooting, data analysis, research, and surveys.
- Meeting obligations under agreements with our partner banks, merchants, and other business partners.
Your consent – In certain cases, we will ask for your explicit consent before processing your Personal Data. This may include processing Sensitive Data, Credit Data, or using automated decision‑making and profiling. Consent also applies to receiving marketing communications.
Legal and regulatory compliance – We may process your Personal Data to comply with Ethiopian laws, banking regulations, and judicial or regulatory orders.

Processing of Personal Data When We Need Your Explicit Consent

What is Explicit Consent?

Explicit consent means a clear and direct agreement from you that unmistakably indicates your acceptance of how we process your Personal Data. Akafay keeps a record of when and how this consent was provided.

Why We Need Your Explicit Consent

We require your explicit consent in order to:

Process your Sensitive Data.
Process your Credit Data.
Conduct automated processing of your Personal Data, including profiling.

What is Credit Data?

Credit Data refers to Personal Data related to your request for, or use of, financing through Akafay or our partner banks. This includes information about your ability to obtain and repay debts, your repayment history, and other financial behavior relevant to assessing eligibility and managing risk.

What is Sensitive Data?

Sensitive Data refers to Personal Data that reveals details such as racial or ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs, biometric or genetic identifiers, health information, criminal convictions, or other categories defined under Ethiopian law and international privacy standards.

Our Disclosure of Personal Data

We may share your Personal Data with:

Members of our group: This includes Akafay’s affiliates, subsidiaries, and our ultimate holding company. They may support the processing of Personal Data under this Notice, assist us in delivering services, or otherwise receive your Personal Data as part of group operations.
Service providers (vendors, contractors, distributors): We disclose personal data to trusted service providers who deliver technical, operational, or administrative support, including payment processors, cloud hosting providers, analytics services, and customer support platforms.
Selected third parties: This may include credit reference agencies and other organizations required to comply with Know-Your-Customer (KYC), anti-money laundering rules, or court orders.
Payment processing providers: These providers facilitate secure payment transactions on our Platform.
Debt collection agencies: If your account falls into arrears, we may share your data with debt collection agencies to recover amounts owed.
Regulators and law enforcement: We may disclose personal data to government agencies, regulators, advisors, or other authorized third parties where required to comply with Ethiopian laws, banking regulations, or to protect the rights and property of Akafay, its partner banks, merchants, or customers. For example, we may disclose personal data to comply with regulatory inquiries, investigations, subpoenas, or lawful requests, and we may cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct we reasonably and in good faith believe may violate applicable law.
Corporate acquisitions and divestitures: If another company acquires or plans to acquire, or if we divest all or part of Akafay’s business or assets, we may share personal data with that company, including during negotiation stages, subject to applicable privacy and confidentiality obligations.
Other third parties: We may disclose your personal data to other third parties when necessary and appropriate, in accordance with applicable privacy laws and banking regulations. Akafay remains responsible for ensuring that any third-party agents process your personal information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Notice, unless we can demonstrate that we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the issue.

Where Do We Store Your Information

All information you provide to us is stored securely on our private cloud.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

We take reasonable physical, technical, and organizational measures to protect your Personal Data from unauthorized access, unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. Payment transactions made through Akafay are encrypted to ensure the highest level of security.

However, please note that no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we make every effort to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of data transmitted to our Platform. Any transmission is made at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we implement strict procedures and security measures to minimize the risk of unauthorized access.

Your Rights

You have rights over your Personal Data. Below is a summary of these rights and how you can exercise them:

Right to be informed: You have the right to know how, why, for how long, and on what legal basis your Personal Data is processed. You are also entitled to information about any automated decision‑making that relies on your Personal Data. This Privacy Notice provides such information.
Right to correct: You may request that we correct any inaccuracies in your Personal Data. If you maintain an Akafay account, you can usually update your information directly through your account profile.
Right to delete: You may request the deletion of your Personal Data, subject to applicable legal and regulatory requirements. If you wish to delete your account, you can do so directly within the Akafay app by navigating to the settings menu and selecting the “Delete Account” option.
Right to restrict processing: You can choose which financial/ banking data you share with Akafay. Any data you decide not to share will not be used, and we will only retain the information necessary to comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Right to object / withdraw consent: Consent can be withdrawn at any time by deleting the Akafay App, ceasing use of the Platform, or declining to click the “Confirm” or “Agree” buttons when presented with documents. Please note that withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before the withdrawal.
Right to update or opt out: If you have registered with Akafay to receive marketing communications, you may update your preferences or unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of Akafay email messages.
- Web‑based advertising (cookies and pixels): adjust your preferences via the “privacy choices” link or cookie settings on our website.
- App‑based advertising (SDKs with advertising partners): adjust your preferences via the settings menu on your mobile device.
Right to file a complaint – You may file a privacy complaint with Akafay by submitting a request through our contact center, or with the appropriate authority regarding the processing of your Personal Data.

Child Safety

Akafay is intended for use only by individuals who are at least 18 years old. You may not use our Platform if you are under 18.

How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Data?

We retain your Personal Data for as long as you have an account with Akafay, in order to meet our contractual obligations to you. After your account is closed, we may retain your data for up to only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy, unless a longer time period is required or permitted by law.

If you opt out of receiving promotional updates or marketing communications, or object to other processing of your Personal Data, we may retain a record of your preferences to ensure your choices are respected. We may also retain anonymized, aggregated information beyond this period for research purposes and to improve our services. Such aggregate information cannot identify you personally.

Changes to This Notice

Akafay reserves the right to update this Privacy Notice at any time. The latest version of the Notice, including its effective date, will always be available on this page. In certain cases, such as when significant changes are made, we may also notify you via email, SMS, or in-app messaging.

Data Privacy Framework

Akafay complies with Ethiopia’s Personal Data Protection Proclamation (PDP), including requirements set forth by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and relevant government authorities. Akafay is committed to collecting, processing, and storing personal data in a secure, transparent, and lawful manner in accordance with Ethiopian law, applicable financial regulations, and industry best practices. We have obtained a security audit and compliance certificate from Ethipoia’s Information Network Security Administration (INSA). Any Akafay user who believes we have violated our obligations to you under the Data Privacy Framework may submit a complaint directly to us through the Akafay App or website, using the options provided in the Manage Your Privacy Preferences section. We will review your request and provide a response within 45 days.

With respect to the Data Privacy Framework, Akafay is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the FDRE’s Personal Data Protection Proclamation (PDP) and requirements set forth by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

Contacting Us

If you have a question about our privacy policy or practices, or wish to submit a complaint, you may contact Akafay’s Customer Service team through our website Akafay.app. Our main headquarters is located at Omedad Building, 1st Floor, Bole Woreda 1, Kirkos, Olympia, AA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.