Nigeria set to introduce biometric vehicle registration

Nigerian Police have introduced biometric registration for vehicles, in an attempt to fight rampant terrorism, kidnapping and car theft in the country.

Called the Biometric Central Motor Registration, AllAfrica reports that registration for the system takes effect in two weeks and will cover registration for cars and trucks, tricycles and motorcycles.  The new system will be based on fingerprint data embedded in smart cards. Police force spokesman Frank Mba has confirmed that facial recognition is also a possibility with this system.

Vehicle owners can register at designated banks, through an online portal or at select police stations across the country.

No stranger to biometrics, Nigeria has initiated many large-scale projects as of late.

Working with BIO-key International, the government of Nigeria will soon mandate biometric registration SIM card sales.

In addition, the Central Bank of Nigeria says it’s set to introduce biometric authentication for point-of-sale and ATM transactions by 2015.

Perhaps most significantly, the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission and MasterCard recently announced the introduction of 13 million MasterCard-branded National Identity Smart Cards, which include electronic payment capabilities, as well as unique National Identification Numbers based on biometrics.

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. In January of this year, the National Population Commission announced it had started a comprehensive biometric capture exercise.

Later in 2012, Chairman of the National Population Commission, 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

facial recognition  |  fingerprint  |  law enforcement  |  Nigeria  |  vehicle registration