BPNG launches digital bank ID project

ABOUT 2,500 people in Maprik and Wewak, East Sepik, will benefit from a digital bank ID pilot project in the next three months.
This follows its official launch by the Bank of PNG (BPNG) in Port Moresby on Monday.
“The project will help some 80 per cent of our informal and rural population with their banking, making it more accessible, affordable, accountable and inclusive for everyone,” Women’s Micro Bank Ltd (WMBL) chief executive Gunanidhi Das said.
Das said it would also help the banks to manage the barrier of customer KYC (Know your customer).
Through BPNG’s association with Digizen, the main implementors of the project to provide digital identity card to support customer account opening processes are WMBL and MiBank.
“The objective of the project is to establish unique biometric identity guaranteeing the customer due diligence requirements for financial institutions and to enable convenient bank account opening.
“The digital access tool is a digital identity recognition and validation system designed to overcome the hurdles of providing identities for people who lack documentation, or are otherwise unable to in our country,” Das said.
The project was launched by BPNG acting governor Benny Popoitai and a demonstration was done by Digizen chief executive Kimmo Koivisto.