In a world where Cyber crimes, identity fraud, and other internet related crimes persist, concerns have continued to grow concerning this ugly trend and ways to curb it.
Charlette N’guessan, a 26-year old from Ivory Coast is making a difference in the fight against this ugly trend. She is the CEO of Ghana-based software company, BACE group.
This year, the young African became the first woman to win the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Africa Price for Innovation, a development which could revolutionize cyber security and help curb identity fraud on the continent.
N’guessan and her team won the 25,000 Euros (about 33,000 dollars) award for BACE API, a digital verification system that uses Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition to verify the identities of Africans remotely and in real time.
BACE API works by matching the live photo of a user to the image on their documents such as passports or ID card, N’guessan said.
For websites and various online applications that have BACE API integrated in them, users will be verified via their Webcam to establish their identity. ‘’for the person trying to submit their application, we ask them to switch on their camera to make sure the person behind the camera is real and not a robot.
We are able to capture the face of the person live and match their image with the one on the existing document the person submitted.’’ She explained.
BACE API can be integrated into already existing applications and systems for identity verification and is targeted mostly at financial institutions on the continent. N’guessan told CNN.
N’Guessan also stated the the principal catalyst for the software was on the facts gotten from research carried out, that many financial institutions in the west African country deal with identity fraud, estimating that over 400 million dollars is spent every year trying to identify their customers. Hence, the need to provide a solution that can be useful to the market.
