Fingerprint ID system launched in Malawi

Police in Malawi have announced the country’s new automated fingerprint identification system, which will be rolled out to all police stations in two years.

Reported in The Daily Times, the new system has cost the government approximately US$1 million (K400 million) and is so far only in use at the Police National Headquarters in Lilongwe.

“Things are changing every day and this calls for the police to sharpen their skills and build their capacities in order to be able to combat crime even in these technologically advanced days. This training will equip the police officers with such skills,” Senior Deputy Commissioner of Police George Kainja said.

Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, Malawi is also looking to implement a biometric voter registration system for its upcoming elections, as it has historically faced considerable issues in maintaining a clean registry.

Registration is set to include fingerprint records as well as a digital photograph for positive identity verification.

Having proposed the biometric registry as well as the new fingerprint ID system, it’s clear Malawi is taking an aggressive approach to biometric deployments, and its among many African countries doing the same. For example, Kenya and Ghana have both recently completed elections using biometric verification. Nigeria as well, has been very active with biometrics as of late.

Reported previously, the National Identity Management Commission in Nigeria has upgraded the capacity of its Automated Biometric Identification system and now ranks as the largest in Sub Saharan Africa.

Article Topics

biometric database  |  fingerprint  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  government  |  law enforcement