Mission to Bank the Unbanked

Today, cross-border payments globally are unnecessarily expensive, inconvenient, and liable to fraud and theft. 

The solution we are pitching will not only change the financial status quo, but also bank the presently unbanked population in the West Africa region, thus leading to a virtuous cycle of economic growth. Through blockchain and fingerprint recognition technology, people will be able to place their fingers on a mobile scanner and enroll into a secure system that grants them access to global financial services. This technology is easily scalable to different banks, regions, and countries in West Africa. 

This solution is a partnership between Integrated Biometrics and ChangeInEx. Integrated Biometrics enables the identification of millions of people around the world through FBI-certified fingerprint scanners, which are used by governments for elections, law enforcement, and border protection, as well as commercially for financial services, healthcare, and social services. 

Cross-border payments are inconvenient and expensive. According to UN figures, the average global currency conversation and fees amount to 7% of the total transaction. This is a problem because it discourages participation in the financial system, especially so among served populations. 

While globally things have improved overall, there is a particular case for alarm in West Africa. The costs to send money from Ghana to Nigeria increased over 3x, from around 5% to nearly 20%. This surprising leap indicates an opportunity to bring in an innovative solution to reduce this friction for exchange between Ghanaians and Nigerians, which may then scale throughout the region as a cross border standard.

The Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) is working to extend financial services to 70 million previously unbanked Nigerians. IB’s fingerprint scanners are already in use by NIBBS, to extend identity to everyone, regardless of race, location, gender, nationality, language, or social class.

Sources: 

https://www.un.org/development...

https://www.brookings.edu/blog...

Our solution will directly improve the lives of people that have been historically underserved in the financial system due to a lack of identity, funds, or access to opportunities. The West African region has 400 million people, resulting in a need for efficient, inclusive technology to promote greater financial inclusion and serve a rapidly-growing part of the world. Within the West African region, Nigeria is a sizable recipient of remittance flows, and so is Ghana. We believe that we have a good understanding of the needs and pain points of this population, having worked with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) on their efforts to extend financial services to 70 million Nigerians.

Source: https://integratedbiometrics.c...

Financial inclusion in today’s world has to take geographic mobility into account. The proposed solution, which combines blockchain and fingerprint recognition technology, is easily scalable across different territories, banks, as well as populations speaking different languages. 

Our solution, in partnership with ChangeInEx, is in response to the call at the Transform Africa Summit for a cross border standard for compliance. Because our Social Inclusion platform exists to empower Financial Institutions and FinTech startups big and small, to help them serve their end users better, ChangeInEx does not really have direct competitors- only complementary service providers and customers. However, when combined with strong identity management, this becomes an unparalleled solution that considers KYC, AML requirements, while materially lowering the friction and cost of implementing financial inclusion for those underserved in the region. Similarly, Integrated Biometrics' scanners feature patented light emitting sensor (LES) technology, which sets them apart from the optical scanning technology used by others in the industry.

Today, IB’s FBI-certified fingerprint scanners are used in over 75 countries by governments for national ID, elections, public safety, and border protection, as well as commercially for financial services, healthcare, and social services. Our partner, ChangeInEx, combines Amazon’s Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and a custom blend of financial services software that has been tested over many years, across different markets. Together, these elements form an exciting new paradigm to drive digital, social, and financial inclusion, at a substantially lower cost and as an easily scalable solution. We expect that the cost of global financial transactions could be lowered sufficiently to empower people in the region to provide services globally, and to benefit from not being “priced out of the market” due to transactional costs.

Imagine that you want to start a bank account, seek healthcare, vote, travel, or participate in a social program that you know you are eligible for - but you can’t prove your identity. This is the reality in areas ravaged by natural disasters, and areas with poor infrastructure, poverty, or war. These are elements that many people take for granted, but these things are still not universally accessible today. 

Enabling identification is more than just a fingerprint; it is a life-changing foundational technology that grants people access to things that very tangibly improve their quality of life. Integrated Biometrics has a demonstrated history of enabling greater accessibility, convenience, and safety for millions of people worldwide - processing a million visitors entering US ports of entry per day, preventing the misappropriation of food relief in Yemen, securing health records in rural Kenya, securing financial transactions in Mexican banks - the list goes on. This is not merely a theory; it has been the reality for the past few years. In other words, we expect that this proposed financial inclusion platform will have a strong impact on the aforementioned identified problem of costly financial transactions with low financial inclusion because we have worked towards and witnessed the positive effects associated with providing identity in many fields, in many countries, and in many social programs.

Sources:

https://integratedbiometrics.c...

https://integratedbiometrics.c...

https://integratedbiometrics.c...

https://integratedbiometrics.c...

The solution we propose involves implementing an interoperable international standard to lower barriers to entry. By reducing fees for sending and receiving cross-border payments, more people can actively participate in financial services. Having capabilities for secure, instant, and accessible money transfers enhance the efficacy of government and NGO programming. This will also provide freelancers and entrepreneurs full and formal access to the world of financial services that is not currently accessible to them due to the high transactional costs.

Moreover, by maintaining an unprecedented integrity of record-keeping with blockchain-cryptographic central ledger for all transactions and operations in the system, the ChangeInEx hub can provide better data for key functions of underwriting social insurance, loans and investments.

Regardless of nationality, race, language, gender, or social class, people have fingerprints, and the process of placing one’s fingers on a fingerprint sensor is straightforward. Integrated Biometrics has a demonstrated history of enabling greater access to social programs globally: IB scanners have been used to enroll and confirm patient identities in Kenya, secure financial transactions in Mexico, maintain patient confidentiality in South Africa, and prevent the misappropriation of food aid in Yemen. IB scanners are lightweight, consume very little power, mobile, and work in all weather conditions (direct sunlight, hot and cold temperatures), making them ideal for large-scale enrollment projects.

Fingerprints are a great way to confirm one’s identity in order to gain access to resources and programs. ChangeInEx’s technology will be integrated into local and regional banks’ mobile apps, as well as social service providers, thus ensuring a good cultural fit.

Fingerprints have been and continue to be the gold standard in biometric identity databases globally. The ChangeInEx system is designed to encourage innovation in providing financial services, integrating with banks and financial institutions via API.

Taking a fingerprint is a straightforward and fast process that is easy to demonstrate to the user, requiring no literacy, numerical, or linguistic prerequisites. Our partner, ChangeInEx, empowers diverse local and regional solutions tailored to the cultural and demographic particulars, by making it feasible for private sector products to serve those who are most in need.

When our solution goes to market for the Ghana-Nigeria remittance corridor, we expect to reach at least half of the 2 million Nigerians living in Ghana, given their current pain of sharply increased fees. 

Within five years, we aim to serve at least some tens of millions across West Africa, and among the thirty Smart Africa Alliance countries (A combined population of over 750 million). 

The current cost of cross-border transactions today is an impediment to global financial transactions.   Entrepreneurs suffer constantly from their inability to engage in services due transactional costs that are greater than the potential profits to be earned.  

In the next year we aim to establish a cross border standard for Ghana and Nigeria that will radically reduce the cost of remittances and increase opportunities for inclusive cooperation.

Even for small sums, cross border transfers should be 1% of the transaction amount - not 5-20%.

Financing needs are not a limiting factor at present. Technical barriers have been already overcome: Our partnership with ChangeInEx operates in the AWS cloud, leveraging Amazon’s cryptographic QLDB database to make blockchain scalable; the underlying proven messaging software has cleared millions of transactions. Presently, our main barriers are regulatory, cultural, and market; our solution is the kind of technology that will enjoy network effects in the right conditions. In our case, success depends on an environment that encourages increasing services available to the constituency and encourages the adoption of this new innovation.

Overcoming the regulatory barrier to tech innovation: government partnerships are the key to allowing innovation to disrupt old business models. 

Banks and fintech startups would like to use our social inclusion platform, but some are concerned about regulatory risks. In partnership with ChangeInEx, our digital identity solution will give regulators the integrity and depth of transparency to gain their participation. Automating compliance allows companies to reprice risks of financial inclusion, and make the investment in providing a robust digital identity for each end user.

Partnerships with organizations such as World Bank, MIT, and the Gates Foundation can help us achieve government participation in West Africa, and the implementation of our cross-border standard for digital identification, title, and transactions.

(Additionally, we understand that the COVID pandemic raises potential questions about contact-based fingerprint scanning. Please check out our response here: https://integratedbiometrics.c...)

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2 full-time staff and 3 part-time staff.

Integrated Biometrics and ChangeInEx are both very strong in their respective fields; IB has been enabling the identification of millions and enabling access to opportunities worldwide for years. The ChangeInEx team brings plenty of global regulatory, financial, and technological experiences to the table. Both parties also have on-the-ground awareness of local conditions and an adaptable mindset.

This is a list of all of IB's present-day partners: https://integratedbiometrics.c...

Integrated Biometrics is proud to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.9 to provide legal identities to everyone by 2030. This need for identity is a critical underpinning for international transactions.

Integrated Biometrics enables the identification of millions, leading to greater accessibility, safety, convenience, and inclusivity worldwide. IB designs and produces FBI-certified fingerprint scanners, which are used by governments for elections, law enforcement, and border protection, as well as commercially for financial services, healthcare, and social services.

The solution proposed is slated to be financially sustainable within days of implementation: the architecture of the solution is designed to provide scalability through cloud-enabled services that yield profit from every transaction.

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N/A - we are not looking to raise funds.

N/A - not fundraising.

Winning the Mission Billion Challenge would grant IB and ChangeInEx greater ability to positively impact the lives of those underserved in West Africa.  Millions of citizens of the region would be included in the global financial marketplace and be empowered to provide goods and services for an affordable fee.  The solution would also gain exposure and legitimacy, both of which are valuable when tackling cultural and market barriers.

Good partnerships help create ideal conditions for solutions to thrive. 

Establishing agreements between sovereign governments is key to our partnership with ChangeInEx on enhancing financial inclusion. Our goal is to serve West African region by providing a cross border standard for digital identity to lower costs on the remittance corridor between Ghana and Nigeria, and then expand to neighboring countries.

The Government and Central Bank of Ghana, as well as the Government and Central Bank of Nigeria.