16 Apr IDEMIA Smart Identity to give Nigeria the world’s most powerful biometric systems

IDEMIA Smart Identity renewed its pledge to Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) by enforcing an upgrade of the entire biometric identification system, which will accommodate 250 million records.

This project, supported by the World Bank through its ID4D initiative, will ensure that each resident’s identity in the civil database remains individual.

On February 28, 2024, IDEMIA Smart Identity and NIMC agreed to revive their collaboration and upgrade NIMC’s biometric system to become the most advanced biometric system in the world.

The initial system was designed to support 100 million records but has already reached around 90 million records and requires this extension to address the whole Nigerian population.

The system upgrade is going to allow NIMC to be compliant with OSIA, an open standard set of interfaces (APIs) that enables seamless connectivity between all components of the identity management ecosystem.

Olivier Charlanes, Senior Vice President of the Middle East and Africa at IDEMIA Smart Identity said: “We are very proud to continue our long-standing collaboration with NIMC for the greater good of Nigeria’s growing population. The new powerful system is future-proof and will ensure that all Nigerians have access to a secured, trusted identity, enabling them to exercise their rights and responsibilities as a citizen. Moreover, this contract, in the most populous country in Africa, demonstrates IDEMIA’s capability to deploy its technologies on a very large scale.”

Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, CEO, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Chairman of the OSIA Advisory Committee added: “Taking this next step in the enhancement of our system with IDEMIA Smart Identity was a natural choice for us. 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.”