German biometrics firm Dermalog has reported that its solutions have helped Nigeria identify more than 23,000 public service employees who either did not exist with their recorded name or were receiving their salary unlawfully. A campaign against corruption and maladministration launched by the Nigerian Government under President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015 has resulted in the removal of numerous jobs from public service payrolls.Of the 312,000 public servants that were audited, 23,306 were found to have received their salary unlawfully or did not even exist. Some of them even received payments from several sources at the same time. 7% of the audited government personnel were not existing or were double-paid.These cases of fraud were identified with the help of the automatic biometric identification system (ABIS) of the Nigerian banks, supplied by Dermalog.A country-wide biometric system has been implemented for 23 Nigerian banks and for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2014 and 2015, identifying bank customers by means of fingerprints and face recognition before they open or access a bank account. Under this system, every customer receives an individual number (Bank Verification Number or “BVN”). More than 24 million bank customers have been registered until today – and their bank accounts are also secured by the firm's biometrics.Besides these achievements, the BVN system has now helped to find and eliminate the 23,306 non-existing public servants. This permits the country to achieve monthly savings of 10.5 million euros and is making a sustainable contribution to the positive development of the Nigerian state.Dermalog will be exhibiting at connect:ID 2016, 14-16 March, Washington DC. connect:ID is an international conference and exhibition that focuses on all aspects of identity technologies and the opportunities for their management in both the physical and digital worlds. http://www.connectidexpo.com
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