FirstBank of Nigeria has rolled out a facial biometric verification feature on its flagship mobile app, FirstMobile, allowing customers to onboard and activate their mobile banking without needing a debit card—which the bank is touting as a major step in making financial services more accessible and secure.
The update removes card-based registration as a prerequisite for account activation, enabling users—including Nigerians in the diaspora, those who have lost or misplaced their cards, and new customers—to enroll using facial recognition technology.
It also incorporates anti-spoofing capabilities to block impersonation attempts, a growing concern in Nigeria’s evolving fraud landscape.
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“With these new services now live on FirstMobile, we are confident we will undoubtedly enhance our customers’ digital experience,” said Chukwuma Ezirim, Group Executive, E-Business and Retail Products Division at FirstBank.
The FirstMobile update also comes with other feature additions—virtual cards for secure e-commerce, instant credit card activation, flexible salary advances with up to three-month repayment, and general app enhancements. Users can access these by downloading or updating the app via the Play Store or Apple Store.
This marks a strategic shift by FirstBank to enable cardless digital banking, removing what had been a significant barrier for many customers.
Until now, FirstMobile required a debit card to complete activation—cutting off a swathe of the population that either didn’t hold a card or had expired or compromised ones. That group includes tech-savvy users who intentionally go cardless for security reasons, as well as rural and diaspora users often unable to retrieve cards physically.
“We understand the importance of keeping up with the evolving digital landscape, and we are dedicated to providing our customers with cutting-edge solutions that make banking simpler, faster, and more accessible. Our goal is to ensure that every interaction with FirstBank enhances customer satisfaction and builds long-lasting relationships,” Ezirim added.
Still, financial security experts warn that the biggest threat to digital banking isn’t the absence of customer verification—it’s the compromised integrity of those overseeing internal systems.
“The Real Danger Is Within”
The move aligns with a wider push in Nigeria’s banking sector to deepen digital inclusion by simplifying onboarding processes. Although banks have been rolling out different efforts to contain fraud, cybersecurity experts and financial analysts have warned that the real threat to customer funds may be beyond the reach of facial biometrics.
Biometric innovation has been applauded for improving user-side security, but has done little to address what’s becoming the most persistent—and least spoken—form of bank fraud in Nigeria: internal collusion.
Data compiled by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based geopolitical research firm, show that Nigerian banks lost over N14.7 billion to fraud between 2019 and 2023. Of that amount, insider collusion alone accounted for at least N1.5 billion in 2022 and N1.04 billion in 2023. These are cases where bank employees either aided or ignored fraudulent activity—granting third-party access to customers’ accounts, manipulating backend systems, or selling confidential user data.
The Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has repeatedly flagged internal breaches as the most damaging vector for fraud, particularly in high-profile cases involving large withdrawals from dormant or inactive accounts. In many of these, system access credentials were traced back to serving staff or outsourced IT support teams.
Despite efforts by regulators to strengthen background policies and implement biometric verification across the banking system, enforcement and internal monitoring remain weak.
With data showing that nearly one in every four financial frauds in Nigeria involves internal actors, experts are calling on banks—and the Central Bank of Nigeria—to invest just as heavily in institutional integrity, employee vetting, internal surveillance, and whistleblower protection as they do in digital upgrades.