In emerging countries across the world, Civil ID programs are taking shape. For these countries, growth, prosperity and political stability depend on providing burgeoning populations with access to basic services, such as pensions, entitlements, education, banking, as well as secure voting systems. Unlike developed countries, emerging nations often lack an identity infrastructure, making it imperative that identifying and authenticating an individual be easy and resistant to fraud. Because other forms of identity such as personal identification numbers (PINs) or identity cards can be faked, shared, lost or stolen, they are less desirable, as they are susceptible to rampant fraud.
Biometrics is a portable identity for citizens that can be reused in many other programs in both the public and private sectors. Delivering services such as entitlements, banking and voting brings points-of- service access to rural populations in a cost-effective, reliable and secure way. Many countries are now fingerprinting their entire population in anticipation of using biometric databases for a wide range of civil and commercial programs.
Recent Comments