Banks to identify customers by fingerprints next year

The Central Bank of Nigeria and the
Bankers Committee on Tuesday sealed a
biometric solution pact with a German
Firm, Dermalog, for the development of
a payment system that would be driven
by fingerprints.
The move, according to the Governor,
CBN, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, will help to
revolutionise the country’s payment
system.
For instance, unlike the current practice
where different instruments are used as
means of identification, bank customers
will from 2014 be identified through
their fingerprints.
Sanusi, while speaking at the signing of
the agreement, which was held at the
central bank’s headquarters in Abuja,
noted that the system would become
operational on February 14, 2014.
The move followed the
recommendation of a sub-committee
chaired by the Group Managing
Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Godwin
Emefiele.
The committee, made up of the Group
Managing Directors of Access Bank Plc,
First Bank of Nigeria Limited, United
Bank for Africa Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria
Plc and Skye Bank Plc, had shortlisted
Dermalog as the company to develop a
database for the banking sector.
Emefiele said, “The company that was
awarded the contract has been given a
very ambitious deadline, and before the
contract was awarded, it agreed that it
would deliver in 90 days.
“The first phase of the project will
connect the central data to the banks as
well as the central bank and the Nigeria
Interbank Settlement System. We
believe that the company will do so, and
by February 14, 2014, we are all very
optimistic and looking forward for a gift
from the banking industry.
“The cost of the project is above $50m
and the banks, in their wisdom and in
line with their collaborative efforts, are
going to be sharing the cost of the
project, and no customer is going to be
charged for this project.”
Explaining the reason for the project,
Sanusi said it would help to provide a
single biometric database that would
serve the purpose of authentication as
well as address the issues of money
laundering, fraud, credit extension and
financial inclusion.
He said, “The vision is that this will go
beyond the banks and it is a very tight
deadline that I have set for the
committee and the committee has
discussed with Dermalog; and in three
months, we can officially say that every
single Nigerian bank is connected to the
system; and hopefully in the coming
months, we will expect every customer
of every branch of every bank in Nigeria
to have complied to this, but it goes
beyond the banking system.
“We have about a thousand
microfinance banks; we have customers
of pension fund administrators; we have
customers of insurance companies; we
have people who deal with the stock
market, and the vision for this is that
everyone that deals with the financial
system should have his biometric data
captured, and this will be used for
identification, verification and
authentication.”
Sanusi said the project would not have
any negative impact on the national
identity card project, adding that the
biometric database of the banking
sector would help to complement the
Federal Government’s identity
management project.
He said, “For a long time, we have been
waiting for the national identity card
system and progress is being made, and
I will like to use this opportunity to let
everybody understand that the banking
industry project is not in any way
incompatible with the national identity
process.”