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.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/banks-to-identify-customers-by-fingerprints-next-year/