biometricregistration of bank customers would commenceon Friday.

The Bankers’ Committee on Tuesday rose from its
315th meeting and announced that the biometric
registration of bank customers would commence
on Friday.
As a result, all Deposit Money Banks will on that
day commence the registration of their customers’
details, including their fingerprints.
The Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc,
Mr. Herbert Wigwe, briefed journalists at the end of
the bi-monthly meeting held in Lagos.
He said the biometric identification system would
help the fight against fraud and money laundering,
and also enhance the protection of bank
customers.

“The banking industry, under the auspices of the
Bankers’ Committee, has been working to
improve the Know Your Customer requirement.
The idea is to fight fraud, money laundering and
ensure a better customer protection. The initiative
will be launched this Friday, February 14,” Wigwe
said.
He said the banks, in collaboration with the CBN,
had been working on the initiative for a long time,
adding that necessary infrastructure had been put
in place to ensure the smooth rollout of the
biometric scheme.
“There will be teething problems, but we will learn
from it. The biometric initiative is being pursued
by the Bankers’ Committee,” the Access Bank
boss said.
The Director, Corporate Communications
Department, CBN, Mr. Ugochukwu Okoroafor, said
the biometric system, when fully operational,
would help to improve credit in the economy and
boost the nation’s macro-economy.
Okoroafor said, “Nigeria runs on cash; there is no
identity. We don’t know who is who. We are now
going into identity confirmation. We can now
create a credit system that will power our
economy.
“Banks don’t want to lend because of identity
issue. We want to move Nigeria from cash system
to credit system that has identity.”
The central bank also announced that its Cash-
Lite policy would go nationwide by July1.
The Head, Shares Services, CBN, Mr. Chidi
Umeano, said the development would help to
modernise the nation’s payment system.
He said, “Statistics show that there has been a
shift from the traditional cash-carrying system to
electronic form of payment. For instance, there is
the Nigerian Electronic Fund Transfer, Nigerian
Instant Payment, Point of Sale terminal and
Mobile Money.
“As of yesterday (Monday), the value of
transactions carried out using the NEFT was
N153bn; Nigerian Instant Pay, N37bn; PoS
terminals, N50m; and Mobile Money, N12m,
totalling N190.62bn for a single day.”
The CBN had two years ago introduced the cash-
less policy in Lagos and Abuja, but last year
added six other states.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director, First
Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mr. Bisi Onasanya,
provided reasons why the Bankers’ Committee
agreed with the CBN on its decision to increase
the Cash Reserve Requirement to 75 per cent
from 50 per cent.
The monetary measure had negatively impacted
on the banks’ bottomlines.
Onasanya said in the face of dwindling external
reserves occasioned by decreasing oil revenue,
the central bank had limited measures to achieve
exchange rate stability.
This, he said, informed the committee’s decision
to go along with the Monetary Policy Committee
on the latest monetary tightening measure.
Onasanya said, “The Bankers’ Committee looked
at the global economic environment and its
impact on Nigeria. We looked at the United States
tapering, global crisis and the resolution of the
crisis in Iran, and the impact of the outflow of
portfolio investment out of Nigeria.”