Nigeria Banks to Replace ATM Cards With Finger Print

I just read it on Punch few minutes
ago. .Banks in Nigeria to replace Atm card
with finger print. Apparently, am I the only
one who doesnt support this development?
With the current security flaw?  Is it not
better to loose an atm card to robbers than a
finger in every attack? Here is how punch
reported it:
The Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers
Committee on Tuesday sealed a biometric
solution pact with a German Firm, Dermalog,
for the development of a payment system that
would be driven by fingerprints. The move,
according to the Governor, CBN, Mr. Lamido
Sanusi, will help to revolutionise the country’s
payment system. For instance, unlike the
current practice where different instruments
are used as means of identification, bank
customers will from 2014 be identified
through their fingerprints. Sanusi, while
speaking at the signing of the agreement,
which was held at the central bank’s
headquarters in Abuja, noted that the system
would become operational on February 14,
2014. The move followed the
recommendation of a sub-committee chaired
by the Group Managing Director, Zenith Bank
Plc, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. The committee,
made up of the Group Managing Directors of
Access Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria
Limited,
United Bank for Africa Plc, Union Bank of
Nigeria Plc and Skye Bank Plc, had
shortlisted Dermalog as the company to
develop a database for the banking sector.
Emefiele said, “The company that was
awarded the contract has been given a
very ambitious deadline, and before the
contract was awarded, it agreed that it
would deliver in 90 days. “The first phase
of the project will connect the central data
to the banks as well as the central bank
and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement
System. We believe that the company will
do so, and by February 14, 2014, we are all
very optimistic and looking forward for a
gift from the banking industry. “The cost
of the project is above $50m and the
banks, in their wisdom and in line with
their collaborative efforts, are going to be
sharing the cost of the project, and no
customer is going to be charged for this
project.” Explaining the reason for the
project, Sanusi said it would help to
provide a single biometric database that
would serve the purpose of authentication
as well as address the issues of money
laundering, fraud, credit extension and
financial inclusion. He said, “The vision is
that this will go beyond the banks and it is
a very tight deadline that I have set for
the committee and the committee has
discussed with Dermalog; and in three
months, we can officially say that every
single Nigerian bank is connected to the
system; and hopefully in the coming
months, we will expect every customer of
every branch of every bank in Nigeria to
have complied to this, but it goes beyond
the banking system. “We have about a
thousand microfinance banks; we have
customers of pension fund administrators;
we have customers of insurance
companies; we have people who deal with
the stock market, and the vision for this is
that everyone that deals with the financial
system should have his biometric data
captured, and this will be used for
identification, verification and
authentication.” Sanusi said the project
would not have any negative impact on
the national identity card project, adding
that the biometric database of the banking
sector would help to complement the
Federal Government’s identity
management project. He said, “For a long
time, we have been waiting for the
national identity card system and progress
is being made, and I will like to use this
opportunity to let everybody understand
that the banking industry project is not in
any way incompatible with the national
identity process.”