The Bankers Committee is planning to introduce soon bio-metric data for all customers operating accounts in banks in the country. Managing Director Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Umaru Ibrahim disclosed this at Dutse, Jigawa state capital.
According to Ibrahim, the banks are already making arrangement to put in place a technology that will capture the data of all bank customers in the country. He said that the national data system has not been forthcoming as such the banks have decided not to continue to wait for the purported national data system by the National Identity Management Company, but have decided to go ahead with their own data. He said the banks are considering going into partnership with Pension Fund Operators (PFAs), because banks have similar system in the pension sector.
The banks, according to him, were advised to partner with the PFAs so as not to waste resources and because it will help the banking system. Ibrahim said that the cashless policy of the Bankers Committee was an initiative to promote financial inclusion in Nigeria. The policy he said is designed to bring low-cost, secure and convenient financial services to urban, semi-urban and rural areas across the country especially through mobile payment services.
Ibrahim said that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the NDIC as Nigeria’s financial sector regulators, have an uphill task in promoting financial inclusion given the relatively low level of penetration of financial services in the country. According to the World Bank, recent report Nigeria under-performs in this regard when compared with most of its sub-Saharan African peers, with the widest disparity being in the category of percentage of adults who borrowed from a formal financial institution in the past 12 months. It is also reported that only 36 per cent of the adult population make formal use of financial services, Ibrahim stated.
