As electronic fraud continues to rise in Nigeria’s banking sector, the Chief Executive Officer of Environ Tech Systems, Ive Chike Meme, has called on financial institutions to adopt Advanced Vein Biometrics for real-time authentication and enhanced fraud prevention.

Speaking at a closed-door industry meeting in Lagos attended by representatives of all major banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and law enforcement agencies, Meme emphasized the urgent need to overhaul outdated security systems.

His words:”  Job zero for all IT professionals is security. The advent of AI renders many passwords, pins, and tokens obsolete, and there’s an alarming rise of insider fraud. We constantly seek what we call ‘proof of life’ – a real human being, alive in real-time, that can present a digital audit footprint.

“Fingerprint technology is good for basic, low-risk approvals. 

“However, where you require the safest biometric performance to combat higher-value fraud and protect billions to trillions in real-time authentication, finger vein biometrics becomes the most suitable selection.”

He added that the advanced biometric authentication technology was developed by Japanese technology giant Hitachi.

Meme said: “The technology has already been successfully implemented by major international financial institutions, including HSBC, Citibank Japan, Barclays Bank in the UK, and Natixis in France. Barclays Bank, for example, has used finger vein technology to protect all business corporate account holders for over a decade and is now implementing its second-generation version of the platform.

“The finger vein biometric system offers what experts call “proof of life” authentication – a non-spoofable method that instantly matches unique vein patterns in users’ fingers. Unlike traditional biometrics, this technology cannot be copied, lifted, or falsified, providing unprecedented security for high-value financial transactions.”

This was among the proposals presented to the Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria (ACCOBIN) following the surge in banking fraud  across Nigeria. 

Environ Tech Systems is currently the only vendor in Nigeria to receive approval from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to deploy finger vein technology. The approval process, which began with prototype testing in 2016, culminated in final approvals in 2022 and 2023.