CHAPTER ONE

                                                INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

            Punctuality as Thomas Chandler Haliburton(1796 – 1865) said, is the soul of business. Any institution will require its staff to be punctual for it to be a success. Punctuality as a function of time with respect to date is a very essential requirement in every setup, be it small scale or large organization/institution, of which Federal University of Technology, Minna is no exception (Shoewu and Idowu, 2012).

            The level of impersonation as well as the ghost worker syndrome in recent times is enormous, in both the private and the public sector, Akinduyite, Adetunmbi, Olabode, and Ibidunmoye (2013). Therefore, there is need for a new system which will wipe out all this enumerated issues. The human body has the privilege of having features that are unique and exclusive to each individual. This exclusiveness and unique characteristic has led to the field of biometrics and its application in ensuring security in various fields. Biometrics has gained popularity and has proved itself to be a reliable mode of ensuring privacy, maintaining security and identifying individuals. Today, the technology is being spotlighted as the authentication method because of the need for reliable security (Arulogun et al, 2013).

            A system insusceptible to impersonation, that provide dependable and efficient means of taking staff attendance record with the use biometrics captures to provide perpetrators with the uniqueness of biometrics will help organization/institution keep good and accurate record of their staff punctuality.

1.2        Motivation of Study

            Punctuality is one of the most important attribute of a good professional, this project is motivated by the desire to bring and enhance professionalism in organizations and institutions.

1.3        Statementof Problem

            Traditionally, staff attendance is done by signing in and out in a register which leavesgap for impersonation and staff sometimes record earlier time when they are late.

1.4    Aim and Objectives of Study

This project is aimed at developing a staff attendance system using fingerprint biometrics.

The objective of these project are to:

1.      Designa staff attendance system using fingerprint biometric.

2.      Implement of the designed system.

3.      Test the implemented Staff attendance system

Scope and Limitation of Study

This project usesfingerprint biometric for time attendance of Federal University of Technology, Minna to makes the task less burdensome and enhance professionalism in organizations.

This project is limited to the fact that the proposed system doesn’t have a centralized database, which means staff enrollment will have to be done at their work unit. Furthermore, transferred staff details will be copied to the new unit database or re-enroll at new station before the staff can have access to the system.

1.6       Significance of Study

            The use of staff attendance system is very important because of human being proneness to error, leaving the staff to write down their names might not be accurate as staff can even write attendance for their fellow staff and their handwriting legibility can be a case when compiling the attendance record at the end of the month.

            The official in charge of attendance collation is highly favored by this system because use of pen and paper as a means of collating staff attendancewill leave the official in charge with numerous sheet of paper, which will be hectic as he/she have to start comparing several sheet to record the average attendance for just a staff. The official is going to waste a lot of time compiling the attendance percentage at the end of the month, mistake can creep in due to the large volumes of papers

            Successful implementation of this project mean the staff attendance credibility can be queried or put to test anytime,  and result are produce fast and accuracy, without stress