The Bank of Industry (BoI) has said it is committed to providing $6 million (N1.1 billion) to support Nigeria’s smart cards manufacturing industry. This is a part of broader move to support backward integration plans that will facilitate the emergence of profitable local manufacturers within Africa’s largest economy.
Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa, Managing Director of the BoI revealed this during a facility tour of SecureID Limited in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. He explained that the bank’s continuous support of the manufacturing sector is hinged on its potential to spur growth and create many jobs for the citizenry.
“Manufacturing in Nigeria is taking a new edge. I am delighted at what I have seen today. SecureID Limited is the first integrated manufacturing company in Nigeria and Africa. What we witnessed today also happened in Nnewi recently at Innoson vehicle manufacturing plant where cars are manufactured in the country rather than just assembling the parts,” he said.
“We are witnessing a successful backward integration of activities in the card industry through local production of cards. The company has established capacity and smart manufacturing techniques. As a customer of our bank, we have supported the business and this shows that the facility has been effectively utilized”, he added.
At current capacity utilization levels of 70 percent and a potential for producing about 100 million cards every year, the manufacturing plant can provide, at least, 350 new jobs in the country.
The Managing Director of SecureID Limited, Mrs Kofo Akinkugbe, revealed that the company can produce chip and PIN based smartcards supporting payments and biometric identification, verification and authentication purposes. According to her, the company’s local production of smart cards for the financial sector, telecommunications and public sector has reduced the level of imports and exposure to the foreign exchange market.
“This state-of-the-art smartcard manufacturing facility aids the local production of SIM cards for the telecoms industry, bank payment cards and high security polycarbonate identity cards for the private and public sectors. This great effort is in line with the nation’s vision of actualizing local content production,” she said.
“SecureID provides turn-key solutions for the smartcard identity industry from project start, through design, manufacture and personalization to final card packaging/fulfillment. SecureID supports a wide range of card products such as EMV SmartCards, GSM SIM cards, Magnetic-stripe debit cards, Loyalty cards, Contactless dual interface chip cards, Multipurpose secure identity cards and Mifare cards,” she concluded.
The ongoing National Electronic Identity Cards (eID) roll-out by the National Identity Management Commission provides a very present demand for more of these cards, justifying the investment efforts of the BoI.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
