About Environ
Learn more about Environ, the company's background, the banking community and how it is trying to improve banking in Nigeria and across Africa
ENVIRON'S COMPANY PROFILE
A Nigerian fintech Environ Technology Systems is working on a citizen identity management project in partnership with Japanese Operational Technology conglomerate, Hitachi, to introduce finger vein and LumenVox voice biometrics for financial transactions processing in Nigeria.
Environ, is proposing to the Nigerian banking payments industry, the Nigerian Fraud forum and the Central Bank for the creation of a central authentication service using both finger vein and voice biometrics and provide that service to all banks and financial transaction processors for ATM, Teller (staff inter-bank branch operations), mobile and POS transactions.
In addition to biometric financial transactions authentication, Environ is working within government agencies for the creation of IT system architecture in identity management, digital signature and security operations centre management solutions to protect organisation’s against insider sabotage threat management, digital audit accountability and IT anti-external attacks.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
In 2012 with a 10-year first phase program, the CBN introduced Biometric checks using Finger Print data (against the National Finger Print system associated to the Nigerian Identity Management Commission - NIMC) in order to stop fraudulent opening of accounts under multiple alias identities.
The system is known as Banking Verification Number (BVN).
It is only used at account opening time and not on transactional basis (authentications).
It means Nigeria has already made a big step in having a unique number per banked citizen that can be used to ensure that there is no fraudulent creation of accounts or use of false identities.
Even though BVN has been very successful in driving better “Know Your Customer” process and has reduced dramatically the fraudulent opening of accounts, there is still a huge amount of transactional fraud and Environ’s goal is to employ biometrics at transactional level to complement the BVN system to reduce fraud an improve the customer experience.
The BVN can be used as a “look up” for other biometric systems.
NIGERIA'S BANKING POPULATION
There are around 120 million accounts and 40 million accounts with 30million active bank individual accounts in Nigeria and on average, the banked community has between 2 and 3 bank accounts per banked person.
It means only around 40m people out of a population of 200m have bank accounts now.
Part of the drive to increase the banked community is to improve authentication for and increase the use of mobile and call contact centre banking.
INITIATIVES TO REDUCE FRAUD
Environ has been working closely with NeFF Anti-Fraud Committee to try to drive through the concept of a central service for all banks for biometric authentication of transactions.
Hitachi’s finger vein solution is well proven in banking with deployments around the world. Environ’s system integrators have been involved in several large projects in EMEA involving 1000’s of ATMs. Environ has positioned finger vein in Nigeria over the past several years, has conducted a number of successful localised tests with Banks.
As an alternative, Environ wants to try to cover the mobile channel via a voice biometric solution and add that to the mandate they are currently seeking.
Reaction by Banking Community
Environ has talked to CBN and several banks about voice biometrics and there is interest in:
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Authenticating account holders when they access call centres
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Authenticating account holders when they access their mobile banking app
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Additional authentication step for certain types of transactions (above certain value etc.)
Meet the Directors
Chuks Iku Interview (Short)
Aminu Tukur
