In the region of Nigeria, the federal government announced that their digital ID, entitled the National Identification Number (NIN) was expected to be needed in the process of applying for a student loan.
At the same time, officials in Togo have announced that the region will rely on information in the biometric citizen registry in order to track and identify defaulting loanees who are under a government-led financial inclusion strategy.
Besides the National Identification Number (NIN), all loan applications in the region of Nigeria will also need to submit a biometric bank verification number (BVN). While the NIN solution will be used to attest that the applicant is indeed a Nigerian, the BVN will be leveraged to accelerate the overall financial inclusion purposes of the country, as each loanee will be required to have a bank account.
In addition, a dedicated portal has been set up for student loan application processes. The system is expected to be fully automated and to make the procedure easier, more efficient, and secure. Furthermore, the National Identification Number will be leveraged to optimise the overall transparency in the process of applying for loans, aiming to meet the needs, preferences, and demands of customers while protecting their privacy as well.
At the same time, officials of Togo announced that individuals who default on loans obtained under the National Inclusive Finance Fund of Togo (FNFI) will not be able to secure other loans, even if they change their banks. The FNFI represents a Togolese government financial inclusion project, and it made this decision because of the facial recognition system deployed in order to identify defaulters. The moment a client is in the database of unpaid loans, they will be automatically identified by using facial recognition at any microfinance window they apply for another loan at.
Through the use of this system, all customers who fail to meet their loan demands are expected to be flagged in a biometric database and identified whenever they apply for a new loan at any financial institution in the region. The pilot of the FNFI was completed, with more than 3.000 loans being granted within the two-year trial period.
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