BIO-key has partnered with a Nigerian government agency to build secure infrastructure with its biometric software and hardware to facilitate ecommerce across the country in the hopes of creating a million jobs, in a contract expected to generate $45 million for the company over the next 18 months.
The deal is in support of a program from the National Electronic Labour Exchange (NELEX), which falls under the Ministry of Labour, to educate and empower recent college graduates in Nigeria. Local consultants, Exponential Launch Africa Limited (ELA), an affiliate of the Technology Transfer Institute of Africa (TTI), Imperial Education Services (IES) and BIO-key Africa partnered with NELEX to develop the program.
TTI and BIO-key formed a channel alliance partnership in November, shortly before the company launched its African subsidiary.
Under it, BIO-key’s biometric solutions will be provided to recent graduates, along with the skills to use them, with the intention of delivering education, healthcare, retail, financial, and identity management services to the domestic market.
“Our strategic partnership with NELEX is yet another substantial step towards promoting and advocating BIO-key and, more importantly, driving real-life use cases for its identity management technologies,” states BIO-key Africa Managing Director and Exponential Launch Africa Limited Chairman Akintunde Jeje. “NELEX is the Federal Government of Nigeria’s regulatory agency responsible for creating high quality employment across Nigeria. This high profile relationship provides access to BIO-key’s innovative technologies, and our collaboration will reinforce our position as the premier biometric solutions provider in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.”
