NIPOST Address Verification System Named in ITU Annual WSIS Prize Finalists List

The innovative drive of the Nigerian Postal Service has recorded a major boost as its NIPOST Address Verification System (NIPOST AVS) platform was selected as a finalist for the seventh annual WSIS Prizes 2018 contest.

WSIS Prize is an international contest developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development. As a finalist, NIPOST AVS will be recognized as a ‘WSIS Champions’.

About NIPOST AVS

The NIPOST AVS a verification platform that seeks to create a centralised and up-to-date database of physical addresses and the details of their occupants in order to bridge the gap in data verification. It has built on a highly secure and reliable platform powered by Youverify, one of the Village Capital, PayPal Fintech Accelerator participants.

The platform enables individuals, service providers, institutions and government agencies verify customers’ addresses, as well as identities.

Nipost claims that the platform will help Nigeria actualize its national financial inclusion strategy, enable banks to actualize the CBN’s Know Your Customer (KYC) mandate and improve the national security infrastructure while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in a commercially sustainable manner.

WSIS Prize Details

The 2018 WSIS Prizes Award Ceremony will be held on the 20th of March at the WSIS Forum 2018 in Geneva. This year’s is the 15th edition of the event.

Eighteen winners will be announced from the selected 90 finalists and all the Winners and Champions will be honoured at the event (NIPOST AVS inclusive).

The project descriptions of this year’s WSIS Prizes Champions will be published in the publication WSIS Stocktaking: Success Stories 2018. This will be released during the WSIS 2018 Forum.

This year’s prize received a record number of 685 project submissions: government agencies (240), private sector companies (97), civil society organizations (82) and International organizations (100). About one million online votes were cast between 29 January to 18 February and which led to the nomination of 492 exceptional projects for the next round.

Here is a breakdown of submissions by regions: Africa (12.7%), the Americas (18.5%), the Arab region (16.1%), the Asia Pacific region (29.2%), the CIS region (10.4%), Europe (9.8%), and 14 international projects (12.1%).

We congratulate NIPOST for this feat and look forward to the next giant stride!