Nigeria may be become a large research laboratory to develop facial recognition that will help Chinese big tech companies identify and track Nigerians and indeed black people, according to Nelson Ceasar Obidile, a cyber security expert.
Obidile raised the alarm after news broke that ZKTeco, the world leader in biometric technology, identity management and security applications, plans to establish a regional hub in Nigeria for its Africa research operations.
ZKTeco at a recent press conference, however, said that its new hub will educate young Africans on biometrics and that linking databases will help tackle corruption, money laundering and insurgencies as well as pensions and healthcare.
But Obidile, quoting a leaked document obtained by Financial Times, said, that Chinese tech behemoths are shaping the United Nations’s architectural standards for facial recognition technology.
The Chinese are reportedly pushing for new standards inside the United Nations’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for facial recognition, video monitoring, and vehicle surveillance, among other cutting edge tech developments.
The standard will reportedly help China’s tech industry open up new markets in the Middle East and Africa.
According to him, such standards are often accepted by Africa and other developing nations that lack resources.
Recall that a new ITU proposal stipulates a requirement that companies must store detected facial features in a database, which will include identifying information, such as race, skin color, facial curvature, among other demographic features.
At a press conference in Nigeria however, John Che, president and founder, ZKTeco, stated that ZKTeco would create an ecosystem – a popular approach to presenting growth plans among Chinese tech firms – that would integrate with public and private schemes.
“I think the only challenge Nigeria has is education. Education and technology application, particularly biometrics, will help solve many of these challenges you have listed,” Che said.
“The different databases can easily be consolidated using technology.”
Che said ZKTeco has “a couple of huge investments planned for Nigeria” and hopes to sign an MoU with the University of Lagos soon to establish a biometrics lab there and create Africa’s first lab to develop facial biometrics for black people and work on smart city plans for Lagos.
Source: Comweek
