DERMALOG Biometrics Contributes to Fraud Prevention in Nigeria

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HAMBURG, Germany, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

DERMALOG, the biometrics innovation leader, is providing its identification technology to make a successful contribution towards combating fraud in Nigeria. Recently, the West African country's government identified that more than 23,000 public service employees either did not exist with their recorded name or had been receiving their salary unlawfully.   

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160307/341368 )

The campaign against corruption and maladministration launched by the Nigerian Government under President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015 has resulted in the removal of numerous jobs from public service payrolls.

Of the 312,000 public servants that were audited, 23,306 were found to have received their salary unlawfully or did not even exist. Some of them even received payments from several sources at the same time. 7% of the audited government personell were not existing or were double-paid.

These cases of fraud were identified with the help of the automatic biometric identification system (ABIS) of the Nigerian banks, supplied by the German company DERMALOG. 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"). More than 24 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.

About DERMALOG:  

DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH, based in Hamburg, is the largest German biometrics manufacturer and is known as biometrics innovation leader.

A team of scientists is constantly working on "Automatic Biometric Identification Systems" (ABIS and AFIS) including the latest fingerprint live scanners as well as biometric border control systems and biometric ID cards and other documents. "FingerLogin", "FingerPayment" and "FingerBanking" are DERMALOG products, as well as automatic face and iris identification.

In addition to Germany and Europe, DERMALOG's main markets are in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The company has now delivered its technologies and solutions to more than 140 government agencies in 75 countries.

DERMALOG also offers biometric solutions for banks and ATM manufacturers. The world´s largest biometrics bank project (50 Million USD) saw 23 banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria provided with a DERMALOG ABIS, which prevents double identities among bank customers and guarantees best possible KYC processes. Numerous ATMs worldwide have been equipped with DERMALOG´s fingerprint technology replacing insecure PINs.

To learn more about innovative biometric products and solutions by DERMALOG, please visit: http://www.dermalog.com .

- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) -

For further information please contact: 
DERMALOG Identification Systems GmbH
Media Relations
Jon Augestad
Mittelweg 120
20148 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49(40)413227-0
Fax:   +49(40)413227-89
E-Mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH