Biometric registration of bank customers
will now commence on April 1, over a month and half after the project
was inaugurated by suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr.
Lamido Sanusi, it was learnt.
Sanusi had on February 14 inaugurated the
registration exercise on behalf of Bankers’ Committee at the CBN head
office in Lagos. He stated that after 18 months of the exercise, bank
customers would not be able to do any transaction without their
fingerprints.
He noted the development represented a milestone in the nation’s financial system and economy in general.
According to Sanusi, the new biometric
registration would lead to the issuing of Bank Verification Number, a
unique identity for every bank customer, and would help to mitigate
fraud, money laundering and other vices in the country.
Although the biometric registration of
bank customers would commence on April 1, the exercise will be carried
out in only 48 bank centres across the country, mostly in Lagos and
Abuja, according to information obtained by our correspondent.
The Biometric Matching Solution Project
team, in a statement, said the project was currently in its pilot phase,
which would terminate on March 31 with a Site Acceptance Test.
The pilot phase, the team said, served as
a model and basis for nationwide deployment of the solution, noting
that trainings were being conducted to users just as central servers
were being installed at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc –
the company selected by the Bankers Committee to operate and manage the
infrastructure for banks.
The statement read, “While at each bank a
server has been installed, which will communicate with the central
servers. Furthermore, enrolment and verification devices are being
deployed at two nominated bank branches.
“To date we have installed servers at 21
bank headquarters and have also commenced the deployment and
installation of the enrolment and verification devices across 48 bank
sites as well as training of the end users at these locations.
“Presently, the banks are testing and
implementing the interface of the system to allow for the seamless
update of some of the information from their core banking application”.
“The current testing and training
activities ongoing at the 48 bank branches will provide the requisite
skill set to staff of the Banks nationwide and this process will herald
the enrolment of customers beginning with the Bank staff. It is our
expectation that the experiences gathered from this phase will provide a
learning curve to the enrolment officers in the Banks and will
therefore lead to a seamless process when we start enrolling the
public.”
The statement further said, “The selected
bank branches will be able to commence Enrolment and Verification of
Bank customers from April 1, 2014 which heralds the Site Acceptance Test
period.
To ensure that all possible knowledge
gaps are closed and adequate awareness and education is created amongst
the public, enlightenment campaigns and engagement activities with
stakeholders will commence upon the completion of the pilot phase
towards the end of this month.”
Sanusi had indicated the registration exercise might commence the week following the official launching of the biometric system.
“The CBN will issue a circular next week
that will basically inform customers that this has now started. As soon
as a bank gets the circular, the branches will issue notice to customers
to find time to come in once and register. You can register anywhere
actually. You can go to any bank or agent to register. Once you
register, you cannot register again,” the suspended CBN helmsman had
said at the launching on February 14.
But the project team insisted the Bank
Verification Number project was being implemented without a breach of
stipulated timelines and milestones under the supervision of the NIBSS
Plc.
According to a holding statement by the
team, the official launch of the Banker’s Verification Number by Sanusi
only heralded the pilot phase of the Biometric Matching Solution
deployment and the pilot phase is scheduled to run till March 31.
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