Africa has been frequently identified as a region ripe for biometric deployments, especially in the area of finance. Strong authentication solutions greatly reduce the risk of fraud while keeping transactions convenient for the end user. This is especially true of voice biometrics, which are hands free and nearly frictionless.
This week, voice biometrics provider AGNITiO announced the successful deployment of its voice biometrics through the Proof of Life authentication system in South Africa. The deployment, done with the company’s payment solutions partner Net1 UEPS, in now aiding millions of South African citizens who receive social security benefits and services.
According to AGNITiO, this ranks among the worlds largest voice biometrics deployments, with Proof of Life having been rolled out to ten million beneficiaries.
The technology was deployed by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). It uses Net1’s electronic grant distribution system, combined with AGNITiO’s Voice iD authentication engine, in order to accurately identify grant beneficiaries over the phone.
Philippe Vinci, AGNITiO’s executive vice president of marketing and sales, explains: “Together with Net1, we have provided a means for South African citizens to access their grants quicker, easier and more securely by simply making a phone call. By combining a government-issued debit card with accurate voice biometrics authentication, the Net1 UEPS Proof of Life system has truly changed life for constituents, while streamlining agency operations and costs.”
AGNITiO’s Voice iD engine is ideal for phone deployments, featuring the company’s proprietary anti-spoofing technology. Also featured on the KIVOX mobile application, AGNITiO’s liveness-detection solution can weed out attempts to fool the system, replay attacks being among them.
In May, Mobile ID World president Peter O’Neill interviewed AGNITiO CEO Emilio Martinez on the current state of the mobile biometrics landscape, protecting against spoofing and the place for voice recognition in multi-factor authentication.
In 2012 and 2013 Net1 was requested by SASSA to biometrically register all social grant beneficiaries and grant recipients issued special smart cards. This was done as part of the beneficiary re-registration process during that period. Recently, Net1 recovered the implementation costs incurred from needing to perform an additional 11 million registrations during this project.
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August 28, 2014 – by Peter B. Counter
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