Introduction
Today, multiple stakeholders collect and verify similar customer data independently, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistent standards, fragmented customer experiences, and elevated operational costs. In response to these challenges, Avanza has developed a National eKYC Platform, built on a private, permissioned blockchain infrastructure, ensuring secure standardization and seamless data sharing across the ecosystem, with full customer consent and control.
AVANZA’s National eKYC Platform – Consonance, was designed in response to a key industry challenge: compliance remains a major burden for financial institutions and regulators across many regions. Today, multiple stakeholders collect and verify similar customer data independently, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistent standards, fragmented customer experiences, and elevated operational costs.
AVANZA’s eKYC-as-a-Service platform addresses these challenges by enabling the harmonization of KYC processes across participating institutions. Built on a private, permissioned blockchain infrastructure, the platform ensures secure standardization and seamless data sharing across the ecosystem, with full customer consent and control.
BIRGER., in collaboration with the Seychelles Banking Association and Avanza, is organising a workshop aimed at presenting the eKYC as-a-service platform.
Date: Thursday 14 May 2026
Time: 08:30 am to 10:30 am
Venue: L'Escale Resort, Mahé
Looking forward to welcoming you.
Équipes
BIRGER.
Jacques Harel
Chief Executive Officer
Jacques Harel détient une licence de l'Université de Westminster à Londres.
Il est comptable agréé de l'Institut des Experts-Comptables d'Angleterre et du pays de Galles (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales [ICAEW]). Il a travaillé plusieurs années en tant qu’expert-comptable pour les cabinets Hacker Young à Londres et De Chazal du Mée à Maurice et a acquis une expertise dans divers secteurs économiques. Il est le Président Directeur Général de BIRGER. depuis avril 2007, une société technologique opérant à Maurice, dans les îles de l'océan Indien et en Afrique.
Avanza Innovations
Waqas Mirza
Chief Executive Officer
Waqas Mirza is the Founding CEO of Avanza Innovations and a Board Member of the Avanza Group of Companies — a 22-year technology powerhouse serving over 500 enterprise and government customers across 45 countries, processing more than 16 million transactions daily across mission-critical platforms.
Under Waqas’ leadership, Avanza Innovations has emerged as a global digital infrastructure provider, delivering national and city-scale, production-grade platforms to Tier-1 government entities, central banks, regulators, and large financial institutions — particularly across the GCC and emerging markets.
Avanza holds one of the strongest regional track records in building and operating sovereign-scale financial regulation, supervision, eKYC, and digital financial infrastructure platforms.
A serial builder and transformation leader, Waqas has founded and scaled multiple technology ventures from inception to multi-country operations, led complex turnarounds, and positioned organizations for long-term, sustainable growth. His work sits at
the intersection of technology, regulation, and economic modernization — helping nations build the digital rails of tomorrow’s economy.
Waqas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from FAST-NU and an MBA from London Business School.