Biometric Banking in Nigeria

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 32 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.