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A democracy for less than two decades, South Africa is now a vibrant country with approximately
48 million citizens of all colors and creeds.
A government-issued official Identification booklet is a critical part of everyday life
here ? Required for every citizen from the age 16 onward, it not only ensures access
to public services, but is needed for transactions as simple as buying a car or even renting
a video. And it is based on the most secure form of personal identification ? a singularly
individual fingerprint.
In the past, applicants at a local Home Affairs office, like this one here in Pretoria, would
normally submit a paper form, supporting documents and then be fingerprinted for accurate identification.
As a result, the government’s archives had amassed some 45 million paper files.
In addition, each fingerprint had to be manually verified in a time-consuming process. The
Home Affairs Office felt it was time for a change.
The 21st century solution to this challenge was the introduction of the Home Affairs National
Identification System Project otherwise known as HANIS. HANIS would not only replace the
current paper system with a cutting-edge digital database, but would need to ensure that every
single new and existing fingerprint could be properly processed, verified and accessible
in real time.
NEC had the answer.
With accuracy rates of more than 99.9%, NEC's award-winning Automatic Fingerprint Identification
System or AFIS is one of the most cutting edge fingerprint recognition technologies
in the world.
Every fingerprint is different. Every fingerprint has a different ridge structure. And we utilize
such minutiae in matching.
The better the software is at recognizing such differences, the better the accuracy
there is in validating an identity. AFIS also works fast, processing as many as 70,000 searches
in a single working day.
Thanks to NEC's breakthrough AFIS technology, the HANIS project has now produced the world's
largest citizen identification database.
NEC has provided us with an amazing amount of technological advancement. I use the way
to describe the system that we have with them as having catapulted us, taken us, and leapfrogged
us beyond expectations.
Collaboration between NEC and local South African engineers was key to the success of
the project.
I think it is important for a company like NEC to impart their knowledge to, to the local
people and to empower the local people to be able to maintain the system and to continue
with the system going forward.
Queues are now shorter, bureaucratic delays reduced. And the extraordinary accuracy of
the system has dramatically reduced the possibility of fraud or identity theft that is common
throughout the world.
But for South Africa, this next generation digital database platform also means something
more.
In the past South Africa's citizens were divided by race or belief. Today, everyone is integrated
into a single digital archive, recognized solely through NEC technology and just one
universal human feature, their fingerprint.
Symbolically it goes a long way because it addresses a lot of barriers people might have,
prejudices people might have heard before, but now everyone have a sense of belonging,
to the country..