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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