Inlaks Computers, in support of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) financial inclusion programme, has introduced Hyosung Finger Print Biometric Automatic Teller Machines to the Nigerian local market.
The company is an Information and Communication Technology infrastructure and solutions provider.
Mr. Femi Adeoti, managing director and chief executive officer, Africa Operations of Inlaks said the latest development was in line with the company’s core vision of delivering greater value and benefits to the financial sector of the Nigerian economy and the West African region.
Adeoti described the deployment of the new Hyosung finger print biometric ATMs as an accomplishment for the organisation.
He explains that the fingerprint biometric ATMs do not only provide convenience and security to the diverse customer segments in Nigeria but also align with the financial inclusion strategy of the CBN to address the unbanked population using ATM as a channel.
In a statement, he said, “This is a great feat for Inlaks especially at this period when fraud prevention and building customer confidence on the use of electronic channels are key to customer acquisition and the retention strategies of the financial institutions.”
With the introduction of this technology, which is globally acclaimed as one of the most secure forms of customer identification on ATMs, Inlaks, according to Adeoti, has again demonstrated its leadership in the delivery of innovative solutions and compliance with market regulations.
It will be recalled that Inlaks was the first ATM vendor in Nigeria to deliver Windows7 ATMs from Hyosung to the market early last year in compliance with the CBN and Microsoft global directive on exit of Windows XP on ATMs.
Explaining how the fingerprint biometric ATMs work, Inlaks’ Director for Sales and Strategy for e-business, Mr. Tope Dare, said, “The new security technology on Hyosung ATMs will be available to existing cardholders, who may wish to adopt biometric authentication as part of their transaction approval process on their bank’s biometric enabled ATMs.”
This, he said, would be in addition to PIN selection while new cardholders, especially those who can neither read nor write, would be issued cards with fingerprint authentication functionality only.
“This will also promote financial inclusion strategy, a central bank’s initiative to address the banking needs of the unbanked population”, he said.
He explained further that the ongoing Biometric Verification Number project by the banks and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, which was meant to address the safety of customers’ funds and eliminate loss of funds through compromise of account Personal Identification Number, would be seamlessly integrated with Hyosung’s fingerprint ATMs already being deployed in some commercial banks in Nigeria.