The Nigeria Police Force on Monday said it was moving from analog to digital motor registration using the new Digital Biometric Central Motor Registration (BCMR) system.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said the change of registration processes of vehicles, tricycles, and auto-bikes from the old analogue CMR to the new digital BCMR system will take effect from September 16.
Mr. Mba said introduction of the BCMR comes against the backdrop of contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidence of car theft, carjacking, kidnappings and other acts of crimes and criminalities in our society.
“Unlike our hitherto analogue based procedures, the BCMR operates on smart-cards and portable hand-held receiver and is a specially developed technological means of attaching automobile owner’s unique traits and personal data to their vehicles for proper identification and protection purposes.” Mr. Mba said
He further stated that the police BCMR are designed to be used for forensic analysis; fingerprints can be matched or verified against registered finger prints collected during registration.
It is also designed to match 20 million fingerprints per seconds (the speed depends on the size of registered prints) 20 million fingerprints is equivalent to 2 million people (10 prints per person).
He also explained that facial Matching can also be achieved with Police BCMR; saying the police’ database can be matched with still pictures and frames from a video stream.
“The system can match 500,000 pictures per minute (if you have a registered database of 150 million, the likely match time for facial recognition is about 300 minutes (5hrs),” he said. Mr. Mba said that as a huge store for information, the BCMR will provide a one-stop information data base for all vehicle owners and serve as a strong forensic base for all manners of investigations which will greatly enhance policing operations particularly in the area of tracking down and locating positions of missing vehicles, preventing crimes, arresting criminals guaranteeing safer and a more secure use of our roads and other sundry crimes.
The BCMR has three means of registration which could be either through designated Banks, on-line, or at some Police Commands.
The designated banks are Eco Bank, Keystone bank and Nigeria Police Force BCMR centres.
Car owners are to pay registration fees at the banks, collect their pin numbers and proceed to the registration points for their registration, “a process that does not take more than ten minutes,” the police said.
“You can also pay on-line, get your registration pin, commence the pre-registration by yourself, filling the details of your vehicle and personal data but the registrant would still have to get a designated registration to complete the registration process where his bio-data, photo and fingerprints would be captured. In the Police Commands and other designated formations, registrants would purchase a scratch card which would give pins to be used for registration.
“Vehicle owners are expected to pay N3, 500.00, while tricycles popularly called “Keke Marwa” or “keke Napep” and auto-bikes go for N1, 500.00,” he said.
Mr. Mba also said that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, calls for the understanding, cooperation and support of all Nigerians towards ensuring the success of the scheme.
So if you are an automobile owner, get involved while it’s still early. A deadline might be fixed soon, which would introduce long queues, you know what I mean.
To start up, simply click https://www.policebcmr.org
