Commercial breakthrough for Precise Biometrics in Nigerian State ID project

Commercial breakthrough for Precise Biometrics in Nigerian State ID
project

The Cross River State is the first Nigerian state to implement biometric
technology and combine authentication and payment in a state-wide
‘Smartcity' card. The state ID card program is the first of its kind in
the world and a breakthrough for Precise Biometrics on the African
continent. In the coming years, all citizens in Cross River State, close
to 3 million people, will be issued a card. More Nigerian and African
States are expected to follow the market development with biometric ID
and payment cards.

The Smartcity card will be used by the citizens for personal
identification in public services such as tax declaration, healthcare,
social benefits and pension, as well as enabling commercial services
such as e-payments.

The program, called the SmartGov Initiative, allows the Cross River
State to automate government services, create tracability and
transparency of their systems and grow revenue. The citizens will
experience easy and convenient access to a number of services, which
will make processes such as receiving money for various social services
more efficient. The solution is built on Interswitch's Paydirect
solution; an e-payment solution which is currently operational is 26 of
Nigeria's 36 states.

The Cross River Governor, Liyel Imoke, states that “One of the
advantages of e-payment is to create efficiency within the public sector
while providing good service delivery to the people.”
Mitchell Elegbe, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of
InterSwitch, notes that Cross River is the first state in Nigeria to
fully deploy SmartGov. “With this project, Cross River State and
InterSwitch are writing history”.

Thomas Marschall, CEO at Precise Biometrics, elaborates:

- The SmartGov Initiative is a highly interesting approach and a true
forerunner to a development we expect to see in a number of countries.
Payments as well as other transactions and services that require
identification of an individual are made possible in a quick and easy
way thanks to biometrics. This is an important expansion of the ID
market that we expect will increase our business opportunities in this
field. It is also very pleasing that our partnership with Interswitch is
already starting to generate projects and income for both companies.

The card program will be rolled out over the coming years and starts to
generate income for Precise Biometrics in 2011. The order value is not
finalized and thus cannot be communicated at this point.

About Precise Biometrics
Precise Biometrics is the world-leading supplier of biometric
Match-on-Card technology with close to 100 million licenses contracted
around the world.

About Interswitch
Interswitch is the leading provider of electronic transaction switching
and payment processing in Nigeria and also one of the prime contractors
for the National ID card in the country. Major shareholders in the
company are a number of African banks.

About the initiative
The SmartGov Initiative is run by SmartGov.CRSG Limited which is a joint
venture between Interswitch and the Cross River State Government.

För mer information
Thomas Marschall, President and CEO, Precise Biometrics AB
Tel. 46 (0)46 31 11 10 or 46 (0) 734 35 11 10
E-mail
thomas.marschall@precisebiometrics.com (thomas.marschall@precisebiometri
cs.com)
Patrik Norberg, CFO, Precise Biometrics AB
Tel. 46 (0)46 31 11 47 or 46 (0) 734 35 11 47
E-mail
patrik.norberg@precisebiometrics.com (patrik.norberg@precisebiometrics.c
om)