Biometric verification required for Namibian pension fund recipients

Namibia’s Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) now requires that recipients receiving a monthly pension benefit from GIPF register their biometrics at their nearest GIPF or NamPost office where three times a year they must attend in person to verify their identity, New Era Live reports.

If annuitants fail to register or verify their identity, pension benefits will be suspended and will only be activated upon registration or verification.

“Verification is the process where the annuitant uses his/her fingerprint to verify his/her identity to confirm that he/she is still alive,” explains GIPF CEO David Nuyoma. “This process ensures that the monthly income is paid to the rightful annuitant. All annuitants must be registered and verified to ensure they receive their monthly benefit from GIPF.”

If a recipient is not registered for biometrics and does not have a GIPF Card, then they are required to bring along either an original identity document, a valid passport, a full birth certificate, a valid driver’s license with full birth certificate or a voter’s card with full birth certificate. Annuitants below 18 years should be represented by a parent or legal guardian and the adults accompanying them should have either an original ID, valid passport, valid driver’s license with birth certificate, voter’s card with birth certificate, guardianship certificate or the child’s full birth certificate.

“After an annuitant registers for biometrics he/she is required to verify three times a year and is required to bring along his/her GIPF Smart Card. The verification process takes no longer than two minutes and annuitants younger than 12 years are required to verify at GIPF offices due to the changes that children fingerprints undergo in that age group, which might require them to be re-enrolled,” added Nuyoma.

Last year, in an effort to fulfill ICAO requirements, Namibia began only issuing biometric passports instead of the old machine-readable passports.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  fingerprints  |  identity verification  |  pension  |  social security