Recently there was confirmation that Nigeria’s government will be linking national ID cards to biometric banking ID number for the purpose of preventing fraud. The plan was disclosed yesterday at a workshop for financial journalists by Ade Shonubi who is the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System’s (NIBSS) Managing Director. He said that this move toward biometric banking ID numbers would help to strengthen the efficiency of Nigeria’s payment system. (planetbiometrics.com)
What’s the goal of Biometric Bank Verification Number?
The goal of the bank verification number (BVN), according to NIBSS, is to utilize biometric information to verify individuals who have a bank account with a Nigerian bank and to authenticate a customer’s identity at the point of transaction. The full range of benefits of this BVN project, according to Shonubi, would include fraud management, credit checks, know-your-customer and transaction authentication.
An Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and an Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) has already been built to be utilized by banks for the BVN project. As of September of this year (2015), banks had already enrolled over 20 million customers into this biometric verification initiative and all customers who have the verification number will be able to securely complete their transaction with their fingerprint.
