The Cross State Government through the office of the Auditor General in partnership with VERITEX is set to introduce a digital verification application for pensioners. The ‘I am alive” application provides a fast, smart and easy process for verification through the individual’s (pensioner) fingerprint.

This digital verification software removes the inconveniences of travelling long distances to venues of analog verifications by old, frail and sick pensioners who must appear in person for verification. In the past, they have been recorded cases of accidents and deaths during the verification exercise. With the “I am alive” App, the Pensioner only needs to walk into his bank and get verified.

The software also curbs cases of fraud in the verification process by the biometric capturing of finger-prints which indicates the individual is still alive. There have been cases of family relatives impersonating dead pensioners during the analog verification exercise.

Speaking during the presentation, the Cross River State Auditor General, Mr. John M. Odey, noted that “with this pact, the pensioner can walk into his/her bank and do the biometric verification which will affirm that he/she is alive. This exercise is scheduled to be done every three months to ascertain that the pensioner is not dead. Currently, pension verification is a yearly exercise, if a pensioner dies a day after the verification exercise, it takes another one year for government to identify and stop payments.”

“The three months duration for verification of pensioners enables early identification of these leakages arising from payments to dead pensioners. This is the rationale behind the three months duration for verification of pensioners“

“Money that would have been drained out from these leakages can go into effective usage in the development of the State, that is why it is important that everyone embraces the “I am alive” verification software,” he said.

In attendance, were the Head of Service and Accountant General