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VerifyMe Nigeria brings efficiencies to KYC, biometric liveness checking, creates address marketplace

VerifyMe Nigeria brings efficiencies to KYC, biometric liveness checking, creates address marketplace
 

Nigerian startup VerifyMe is adding to its range of identity verification tools for KYC with biometric liveness detection, a banking number verification integration, an updated address service called VeriFind and a verified address marketplace. The company is conducting 100,000 standard address verifications per month.

More efficient address verification

The firm, which has ambitions to verify an increasing number of aspects of people’s lives, uses a blend of remote technology and 19,000 on-the-ground agents for determining an address required in onboarding or KYC.

VeriFind is a software application that uses GPS and geo-tagging to link customer identities with their addresses and lowers costs. For example, if somebody wants to open a bank account and the bank is using VeriFind, the customer provides an address in his or her application. They are then sent a link to their smartphone. They can then follow the link when they are at their stated address and log the location via GPS. They can also indicate it on a map.

Being at the location provides at extra data point, plus the time they activate this location. The system attempts to match the GPS location with the address provided by the customer, and VeriFind also attempts to match it with information held on government databases via APIs. The GPS location is then used by VerifyMe’s agents to find the customer and ascertain that they live at the address. This process fulfils the Tier 3 requirements for the Central Bank of Nigeria.

This is a far better start for the agents than the previous model where they had a rough location and had to walk the streets trying to find the new customer. The efficiency and time saving can be passed on to VeriFind’s customers. It can cost as little as N50 ($0.12) for large clients.  VeriFind-lite, another new product, allows corrections of vague addresses.

By using the service, people going through KYC consent for their verified addresses to be stored in VerifyMe’s Address Marketplace. Should they then want to undergo KYC elsewhere, that institution can benefit from an even cheaper address verification.

VerifyMe has links to Nigeria’s government databases and can cross reference against 30 million addresses. Should the address a customer provides for KYC not match their previously registered address in a database, verification of the new address can continue and both the institution doing the KYC and the government database will be notified.

Biometric liveness checking

VerifyMe has developed a facial liveness widget to be integrated into its clients’ apps. The widget captures a very short video of the user and then attempts to match the person with records held by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

NUBAN transaction checking

Banking in Nigeria is complex and suffers from low trust. A relatively recent security is the BVN or bank verification number. This is linked to an individual’s biometric ID, giving them a unique identity in the financial system and is needed for transactions. Before that, and still necessary, is the NUBAN or Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number, a 10-digit code which is tied to an individual account. It is intended to be simpler to use than the much longer account number and sorting codes.

VerifyMe has developed an integration for its clients which checks a NUBAN entered against other details given for an online transaction or transfer. Checking with the APIs to government databases it can flag if the personal details do not match the NUBAN.

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