Idemia upgrading Nigeria’s national biometric system to handle 250M IDs

Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is upgrading the country’s biometric identification system to handle the records of up to 250 million people and support a million 1:1 and 1:n searches per day through a renewed contract with Idemia.

The contract renewal includes Idemia Smart Identity’s IBRS (Idemia Biometric Recognition System), its latest generation ABIS that comes with improved algorithms and a layer of open interfaces to support integration with the Open Standards Identity API (OSIA), an Idemia representative tells Biometric Update in an email.

Compliance with the Secure Identity Alliance’s OSIA gives NIMC an interoperability framework the provides the freedom to integrate technologies from other vendors or in-house development. The system currently used to support Nigeria’s National Identity Number (NIN) was designed to support 100 million records, but the country has already issued more than 104 million of the biometric digital IDs, and is on track to reach 148 million by June 30, according to the World Bank.

The new system will give Nigeria one of the most robust biometric systems in the world, comparable to India’s Aadhaar, according to a company announcement.

The contract covers Idemia’s upgrade of NIMC’s existing system and the procurement of additional ABIS licenses, plus maintenance and support services. The contract covers a term of three years, according to Idemia’s representative.

“Taking this next step in the enhancement of our system with Idemia Smart Identity was a natural choice for us,” says NIMC CEO and OSIA Advisory Committee Chair Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote. “We wanted to ensure that we deliver the best-in-class solution to our fellow Nigerians, and the pure power of the biometric matching we will receive ensures that the solution is future-proof for our growing population.”

Olivier Charlanes, SVP of Middle East and Africa at Idemia Smart Identity, says that the contract demonstrates the company’s capabilities to deploy technologies at “very large scale.”

Article Topics

ABIS  |  Africa  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  government purchasing  |  IDEMIA  |  Idemia Smart Identity  |  identity management  |  National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  |  Nigeria