Nigeria introduces biometrics to hotel industry

The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) recently announced their plans to create an electronic database of all hotel staff and personnel in a bid to curb criminal activities that are taking place in the country’s hospitality industry.

The database would hold all pertinent data about an employee such as their biometrics, work history and other personal information. It will serve as a means to track the movement of hotel employees if they should decide to transfer to a different hotel within the country and allow the establishment to do a quick security check on them.

The introduction of the biometric system is seen not only as a means to help law enforcement agencies apprehend suspects and boosting security in hotels but also as a proactive solution for crime prevention.

Crimes such as theft, prostitution or even the entry of illegal drugs can be avoided when employees know they are being closely monitored.

The new technology and automated system will be offered to the hotel industry that will be able to submit their employee profiles for storage in the database. Personnel managers and hotel owners will also be able to “red flag” an employee who is found to have committed a crime and the rest of the group will be automatically informed.

Will the new technology help prevent crimes such as theft thereby protecting tourists?

Article Topics

biometrics  |  data protection  |  law enforcement  |  privacy  |  security