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Biometrics improving the world

APOIAR (Associação Portuguesa de Apoio a África) is a Portuguese non-profit organisation that specialises in nutrition, health and education projects in Africa through its MAYI Project – Academy of Maternal and Child Nutrition. This project aims to improve the nutrition and health of pregnant women, mothers and their infants up to two years of age in rural Mozambique.

To aid APOIAR in becoming more efficient through digitisation, BioRugged donated its Ruggbo and BioWolf devices, loaded with neaMetrics’ state-of-the-art Andro-ID to support the transition from a paper-based system to a biometric-based electronic patient registration and verification system.

Andro-ID is neaMetrics’ biometric identity management software designed for BioRugged’s biometric-enabled Android OS hardware. It forms part of neaMetrics’ iTrust-ID suite of products which enables biometrics within organisations wishing to positively authenticate users/clients through biometrics.

The iTrust-ID suit provides a variety of products that enables seamless enrolment, verification and identification of clients and which is suitable for workforce management, KYC, policing applications, driving licence and civil ID projects, including secure ID card/document issuance. Andro-ID is specifically designed to enable easy integration with third-party products through open APIs and which, for this project, allows for accurate biometric identity management and sponsor reporting.

Implementation and training was performed by BioRugged, providing the MAYI Academy with the necessary skills to execute secure biometric enrolment of mothers and visitors, to store the data in accordance with legal regulations and to perform quick and accurate biometric verification of mothers for repeat visits.

The biometric system will allow APOIAR to focus on the needs of the patients by reducing the daily administrative burden and it will effectively optimise the distribution of aid, assistance and resources by analysing population statistics drawn from training sessions, topics and number of attendees.

Helena Ribeiro Telles, CEO of APOIAR, said, “This is a big step for APOIAR directing our projects towards digitalisation and making APOIAR more efficient.”

BioRugged’s CEO Arnd Langguth believes, “We need more such implementations, where biometrics makes a direct positive change in people lives and we are happy to see that Africa continues setting the bar for what can be done with biometrics.”

Walter Rautenbach, MD of neaMetrics, distributor of BioRugged and Suprema in Africa, comments “Involvement in projects such as these, where biometrics is applied in the real world to make a real difference, is extremely rewarding and we are happy to be part of making a difference.”

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