Biometric ID Rollout in Africa

While the ebola virus continues to devastate Western Africa, the rollout of biometric IDs is all but completely ignored in the media, but it could cause even greater devastation as the world marches towards a totalitarian surveillance police state.

Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana all have cards, while others are either in the process or have some form of biometrics in another area, e.g. banking security.

The following blog post by the Securiport company puts biometrics into perspective regarding ebola from the view point of a biometrics company.

Securiport Remains Committed to Mitigating Health Risks and Economic Impact of Ebola Virus in West Africa

This article on India contains an Excel file with information about different countries and their usage of biometrics. Categories include medical use, government ID, online banking & finance, etc.

Let’s Make a Citizen Out of You: The Rise of Biometric Identification in India

The following blurbs start with the country name, possibly a few words about the context of the article, and then the article title linked to the original article. The titles are pretty much enough to tell what’s going on for most.

Ghana

World Bank Provides US$29.15m to Build Robust National Identification System

World Bank Provides Us$97 Million For Etransform Project

Guinea

Election registration.

Guinea-Bissau

Concern for Guinea-Bissau from countries attending a biometric ID conference for West Africa (ECOWAS).

West Africans to have common biometric ID card

Guinea Bissau Opts for Secure National ID Card to Combat Fraud

Ivory Coast

Immigration systems. (Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Equatorial Guinea)

The Role of Biometrics In Containing Ebola

Kenya

Biometric registration of Kenya’s public servants begins, absentees will be considered ‘ghosts’

Kenya: Civil Servants’ Biometric Registration Kicks Off in Tharaka Nithi County

Anne Waiguru: Biometric listing a win-win solution

Mauritania

MAURITANIA: A SINGLE INTEGRATED SYSTEM

Mauritius

Mauritius government to issue smart ID cards

Mali

THE NINA CARD: A TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE, AN INDUSTRIAL SUCCESS

UN doing biometric scanning of people.

2014 UNHCR regional operations profile – North Africa

Malawi

Fingerprinting for microloans. No government ID.

Fingerprints for finance: Improving micro lending in Africa

Mozambique

Mozambique Driver License Program.

Mozambique Deal Expands African Adoption of Digimarc Secure ID Solutions

Namibia

Understanding Biometrics…Information Fusion For Multimodal Biometrics

Namibia: Enhanced Banking Solution By Namibian Biometric Systems

Namibia’s Biometric Systems’ Banking Solution

Nigeria

Launch of MasterCard-branded National e-ID for Nigerians and Implementation Issues

Nigeria launches new biometric ID card – brought to you by Mastercard

SecureID, Sterling Bank partner to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria

Compulsory.

Kano Inaugurates ID Card Project

Republic of the Congo

First Biometric ID Card Produced in the Republic of Congo

Rwanda

Registration for foreign residents.

DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION HAS STARTED ISSUING ELECTRONIC RESIDENT ID CARD TO ALL FOREIGNERS RESIDING IN RWANDA

South Africa

South Africa: Biometric Smart ID Cards – Dumb Idea

Online fingerprint verification.

Banks now verify your identity online


That’s a decent list, but does not include biometric passports, which includes most countries in the world anyways and is completely uninteresting in comparison.

The main pushers are biometrics companies, financial institutions, banks, the IMF, United Nations, etc. You’ll see the usual suspects pop up again and again. If you read through many articles, you may have noticed that Dr Risco Mutelo came up repeatedly. Again, more industry shilling.

It seems like Africa is the testbed for biometric IDs for now. Expect the rollout elsewhere in the world shortly. Or rather, dread the rollout elsewhere.

Here’s an excellent comment on biometric identification:

Cheers,

Ryan

 

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