In-Person

The strongest verification mode. Combines a NIN lookup with a biometric face match against a freshly-captured selfie of the holder.

POST/verify-nin/in-person

Request

Field	Type	Required	Notes
nin	string	✅	Exactly 11 digits
selfie_image	string	✅	Base64-encoded JPEG of a live selfie (no data:image/jpeg;base64, prefix)
reason	string	✅	A key from /nimc-reasons

Tip

The selfie must be a fresh capture of the holder taken at the moment of verification. Photo-of-a-photo and other spoof attempts are rejected by NIMC’s match engine.

curl

# Base64-encode the JPEG without newlines
SELFIE_B64=$(base64 < selfie.jpg | tr -d '\n')

curl -X POST https://api.randaverify.com/v1/verify-nin/in-person \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --arg nin '12345678901' --arg img "$SELFIE_B64" --arg reason 'corporate' \
       '{nin:$nin, selfie_image:$img, reason:$reason}')"

Python

import base64, requests

with open("selfie.jpg", "rb") as f:
    selfie_b64 = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode()

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.randaverify.com/v1/verify-nin/in-person",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"},
    json={
        "nin": "12345678901",
        "selfie_image": selfie_b64,
        "reason": "corporate",
    },
    timeout=45,  # face match adds latency
)

Node

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const selfieB64 = (await readFile('selfie.jpg')).toString('base64');

// Face-match adds latency, bump fetch's AbortSignal timeout to 45s.
const res = await fetch('https://api.randaverify.com/v1/verify-nin/in-person', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    nin: '12345678901',
    selfie_image: selfieB64,
    reason: 'corporate',
  }),
  signal: AbortSignal.timeout(45_000),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`In-person verification failed: ${res.status}`);
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data.fname, data.lname, data.reference_id);

Response (200)

Returns the standard normalised record. NIMC’s match score is reflected in the underlying response and surfaced via the data.status / data.message fields when relevant, a 200 from this endpoint already implies the match succeeded above NIMC’s threshold.

Failure modes

Status	When	Recover by
400	NIN invalid, selfie unreadable, or match score below threshold	Re-capture the selfie in better lighting; ensure the NIN matches the person in the photo.
402	Org wallet empty	Top up.
500	Upstream face-match service unreachable	Retry with backoff.

Cost & idempotency

Charged 1 unit on success, same as standard verification. A no-match answer about the NIN itself (Invalid NIN, Suspended NIN, Record not found, or a NIN restricted by its holder) is also charged. Errors and outages are not. See Wallet & units.