The announcement was made in Abuja by the governor of the apex bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a cashless policy sensitisation programme organised for stakeholders, the governor said the biometric authentication would ensure the safety of customers’ funds and would help in preventing losses.
“The biometric authentication for POS and ATMs to address safety of customers’ fund and avoid losses through compromise of PIN is being considered and it will be implemented by 2015,” he said.
He added the bank introduced the cashless policy in order to provide a safer payment system for Nigerians.
“The cashless drive by the CBN does not mean the absence or replacement of cash; however, it is the provision of safer and efficient alternatives of payment for bank customers. A safe and effective payments infrastructure is core to the financial stability of any country,” Sanusi said.
The governor said the bank has taken, and continues to take, measures to improve the safety of e-transactions, one of which he said was migration from magnet strip type ATM to PIN types.
“The CBN has taken a giant step to gain the confidence of the ATM consumers, following the circular enforcing migrating from magstripe type of debit card to chip and pin type of debit card. Statistics show that this effort has reduced fraud incidence by 90 per cent,” he said.
“Many customers are now embracing the use of electronic channels in their transactions because of the near impossible efforts of would-be fraudsters to clone debit cards to perpetrate fraud, as it was the case during the pre-migration era.”