South African Department of Home Affairs (AFIS) - Nec

NEC AFIS for Identity ManagementNEC AFIS created the world’slargest civilian fingerprintidentification database for HANIS.NEC’s global expertise is a key to large scale nationalprojects. Using NEC AFIS, HANIS provides a fullyintegrated 10 fingerprint identity solution to cater for over50 million adults.Customer ProfileSouth Africa is a country with approx. 48 millioncitizens of all colors and creeds. Thegovernment provides all citizens over the age16 with official ID booklets to ensure access topublic services and enable daily transactions.The booklet is based on the most secure form ofpersonal identification – the holder’s fingerprint.To obtain an ID booklet, citizens must go to theHome Affairs office, submit an application formand supporting documents, and then befingerprinted for accurate identification. As aresult, the government’s archives had amassedsome 45 million paper files.In the past, fingerprint authentication had to bemanually checked in a time-consuming process.The manual database had become too largeand unmanageable as the volume of filescontinued to grow. The poor accuracy ofmanual searching was yet another crucialchallenge.Key FactsThe 21 st century solution powered byNEC AFIS provides the answer to thechallengesAs the 21 st century solution to the challenges,the Home Affairs National Identification System(HANIS) project is led by South Africa’sDepartment of Home Affairs, aiming to replacethe legacy paper system with a cutting-edgedigital database and to ensure that every singlenew and existing fingerprint could be properlyprocessed, verified and accessible in real time.The government turned to NEC’s awardwinningAutomated Fingerprint IdentificationSystem (AFIS). With accuracy rates of morethan 99.9%, the NEC AFIS is the most cuttingedgefingerprint identification technology in theworld.Using the NEC AFIS, HANIS implemented aone to many (1:n) search database as thesystem’s core technology. Current records (inexcess of 30 millions) are now digitally andsecurely stored in the database, and the searchengine powered by NEC AFIS demonstrates asignificant improvement in accuracy. The NECAFIS implemented within HANIS is currentlycapable of storing and searching up to 50million records.1/2

NEC AFIS track records withinthe HANIS Project2001 Completion of Phase-1HANIS facility officially opened in Feb, 20022002 Completion of Phase-2 and systemscommissioning2003 Completion of Phase-32005 Completion of system expansion, to cater for70,000 searches per day2008 Completion of system expansion andtechnology upgradeCurrently, over 50 million ten print recordscan be stored within the AFIS, with an initialworkload of 70,000 searches per dayEver faster and ever more accurate“Every fingerprint is different. Every fingerprinthas a different ridge structure. And we utilizesuch minutiae in matching.”, according toMasanori Hara, Project Director of NECCorporation.The better the software is at recognizing suchdifferences, the higher the accuracy there is invalidating an identity. NEC AFIS also works fast,processing as many as 70,000 searches in asingle working day.NEC technology contributed to nationalunityAbout UsNEC Corporation is one of the world’s leadingproviders of Internet, broadband network andenterprise business solutions dedicated tomeeting the specialized needs of its diverse andglobal base of customers. NEC has alsoconsolidated its position in the development,marketing and implementation of biometricssolutions. NEC’s AFIS has enjoyed unparalleledsuccess in the worldwide market, and a largepart of the world’s fingerprints are now stored onNEC’s AFIS, helping solve more crimes fromlatent prints than all other systems.“NEC has provided us with an amazing amountof technological advancement.”, said VusumuzuMkhize, Acting Deputy Director General forCivic Services South African Department ofHome Affairs.Collaboration between NEC and local SouthAfrican engineers was key to the success of theproject. Queues are now shorter and delaysreduced, and the accuracy of the systemdramatically reduces the possibility of the fraudand identity theft that are a growing problem inthe world.But for South Africa, this next-generation digitaldatabase platform also means something more.In the past its citizens were divided by race orbelief. Today, everyone is integrated into asingle digital archive, recognized through NECtechnology by just one universal human feature,their fingerprint.Copyright © 2008 NEC All right reserved.2/2