A country-wide biometric system has been implemented for 23 Nigerian banks and for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2014 and 2015, identifying bank customers by means of fingerprints and face recognition before they open or access a bank account. Under this system, every customer receives an individual number (Bank Verification Number or "BVN"). The objective of the BVN is to use biometric information as a means of first identifying and verifying all individuals that have account(s) in any Nigerian bank and consequently, as a means of authenticating customer's identity at the point of transactions.
More than 56 million bank customers have been registered until today - and their bank accounts are also secured by DERMALOG´s innovative biometrics. Besides these achievements, the BVN system has now helped to find and eliminate the 23,306 non-existing public servants. This permits the country to achieve monthly savings of 10.5 million euros and is making a sustainable contribution to the positive development of the Nigerian state.
Important aspects
The benefits of the BVN project include credit check, know-your-customer (KYC), fraud management and transaction authentication.
Ensuring safe banking and prevention of any fraudulent transactions or activities.
Authenticating any transaction using only BVN and biometric information.
Increasing the efficiency of the banks and enabling customers to do future banking activities.
The biometric banking system in Nigeria
The Bank Verification Number (BVN) is an initiative of both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers' Committee, an umbrella body of deposit commercial banks in the country. It was meant to find a final solution to cases of fraud in the nation's banking sector. Under normal circumstances anyone can get access to you bank PIN number, card or can even copy your hand sign. They can use it without you. But since BVN uses biometric data which are impossible to steal or copy no one can use your bank account without you knowing about it..
The DERMALOG LF10 is the first tenprint and rolled fingerprint scanner providing liveness detection. Using its large scanning area the LF10 is optimized for creating high quality images. Its advanced optical system captures plain fingerprint images and rolled fingerprints within a second. From border management to voters registration or law enforcement - a comprehensive biometric solution.
