Incept partners with Nigerian law firm to better understand biometrics in the country

A top Nigerian law firm has partnered with biometrics and surveillance provider Incept to understand national biometric identity project deployments in depth as Nigeria eyes an Aadhaar-like system of biometric identification in the country.

Biometrics is prevalent in Nigeria, as the country has implemented numerous biometric safeguards and systems in the country. The Nigerian government, eyeing a national biometric database, has taken active recommendations from major Indian brands including Incept and Solus.

“India’s Aadhaar program has led to a large increase in the people of the world taking notice of us,” Ashwin Srivastava, CEO of Incept said. “Nigerian firms contacted us because of the same, as they believe that our expertise in biometrics is higher, and probably that’s true.”

The National Population Commission in Nigeria has started this comprehensive biometric exercise, with which it aims to collect biometrics from every Nigerian citizen and resident.

As reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, in 2012, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of Nigeria announced its proposal to capture the biometrics of every Nigerian and issue national identity numbers within a period of only 30 months.

Later in 2012, Chairman of the NPC, Festus Odimegwu said other government agencies — such as the NIMC — which had been collecting biometric data, will pool that information with the NPC. The chairman also controversially suggested that any Nigerian who is not captured in this most recent demographic survey will not be recognized as a citizen of Nigeria after the 2016 national population census.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  government purchasing  |  national identity  |  Nigeria