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New facility opens as Electronic Payplus
By Emeka Anaeto and Elizabeth Amihor
Nigeria can save about $ 100 million annually by manufacturing electronic cards locally, as bank cards alone cost about $ 36 million.
This was announced by Bayo Adeokun, general manager of Electronic Payplus Limited, one of the few electronic card manufacturers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Adeokun spoke to some media representatives last week about the start of its multi-million dollar new production facilities: “Before our intervention, bank cards alone cost about 36 million US dollars each year. I did not cover the costs for the SIM card. For example, I did not cover the cost of the tax card from the government of Lagos State and other states that are now making it up. I didn’t talk about the national identity card and I didn’t talk about the voter ID card. If you sum it all up in US dollars, you will be talking about US $ 100 million savings for the country. “
Urging the federal government to take measures to protect investment in the card industry, he went on to state, “In this time when remittances from abroad are falling, crude oil revenues are falling and all of that, the government really needs to earn a lot in terms of savings on currency reserves. “
He also spoke about the employment value the industry is adding to the economy, saying, “Before (start of new production lines) Electronic Payplus had about 100 employees. Now we’re up to 150. So we’re also creating jobs. I mean, if you look at the nature of Nigeria, these are 50 employees who are each dependent on, so we’re talking about an additional 500 or more that we care for. “
He gave details of the company’s new manufacturing capacity and said, “We can make any smart card. So the aim is to expand it to all areas of the economy. I showed you below an identity card that we produce for Nigeria. So we are known to the government. When the current government came in, they said there was no money to finance production again. So they said they want to go into the digital identity card. We also play in this area because we have the license.
“We have currently enrolled Nigerians in the diaspora. We are doing local registrations which are currently also in progress. We are licensed to produce this. We are also currently working with the government of Lagos State because they want to introduce what is known as a residence card, which will also be a payment card. So we will serve all industries.
“We are also talking to telecommunications companies about the possibility of delivering their SIM cards as well.
“Look beyond Nigeria too. We have customers all over Africa. For example, we manufacture all of their cards at all banks in Gambia. We have customers in Ghana, Guinea, Cameroon, Uganda and Kenya. “
Commenting on the impact of upgrading the company’s new manufacturing facility, he said, “We have built 60 million production cards a year.
The idea, however, is about improved handling that we can offer because if you place an order for a million cards today, I can deliver it within a week.
I can even deliver you 250,000 a day. We believe this will mean a change for us, and we can now increase our capacity utilization and market share as quickly as possible. “
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