SecureID opens eID and EMV card plant in Nigeria

SecureID Limited, a vendor of smart card supply and personalization business, has announced the launch of its new and first polycarbonate plant in Africa called SecureCard Manufacturing in Lagos Nigeria.

This ultra modern plant focuses on the polycarbonate card body production and high security designs which confirms a successful fulfillment of another milestone in the backward integration of smartcard manufacturing process.

SecureID built its first personalisation plant in 2006 using advanced technology equipment to personalize imported smartcards for various purposes across different sector of the economy. In 2008, SecureID took the lead to backward integrate into “Milling and embedding”; a core aspect of personalization. Milling and embedding is the process of milling a cavity into a card body and embedding a chip module unto the plastic. We refer to this as “Sub-assembly”.

SecureCard Manufacturing Plant is the first polycarbonate smartcard manufacturing plant in Africa capable of producing large supplies of cards to the tone of 200 million cards per year in line with global standards. This great achievement brings to birth another level of backward integration in card manufacturing process which distinguishes SecureCard Manufacturing from being a Perso bureau. Perso bureaus create uniqueness by graphical and chip personalization while full end-to-end manufacturers such as SecureCard actually manufacture the card. It is important to note that Perso bureaus cannot manufacture smartcards rather they specialize in personalizing manufactured smartcards.

The completion of the new EMV certified plant allows SecureID to significantly manufacture polycarbonate ID cards (ranging from national IDs, payment cards, SIM cards) of any specifications and standards from around the world, locally. The plant has been tested by foreign test labs and certified by MasterCard, Visa and Verve for all kinds of smartcards production. It is equipped with ultra modern facilities and employs ” Special Security Design ” software to design unlimited security features that can be used for any ID documents including currency note.

“I really appreciate SecureID for the decision to work with us for the supply of world class manufacturing equipment and related services. This plant is equipped with the state of the art machines and ready to operate with most advanced technology and manufacturing processes capable of delivering high security level requirements. I can confidently say that this polycarbonate plant is a remarkable achievement in Africa despite the complexity of setting up,” said Charles Mevaa, VP Government Program, Gemalto.

This great effort in delivering a world class plant will in no doubt contribute to the growth and development of the nation’s economy in various ways such as job creation, technology transfer as well as skilled manpower, capacity development and reduction in capital flight in line with the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) launched by the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2012. This further opens up opportunities for entrepreneurship as approximately 75 per cent of raw material used for the manufacturing of smartcards are made from petrochemical products that can be sourced locally in the next three to four years if supported by the Federal Government.

It also reduces the strain on foreign exchange as clients will be more competitively positioned because of the proximate benefits.

One important benefit of producing smartcards locally is the security of Nigeria’s citizens data and infrastructure, offering the benefit to create and own all the technology on our smartcards without dependence on control from outside the country. Other countries like India have already adopted the same and this was effective from October 2014 “all the applications that reside on their chip modules must be loaded from inside the country”

In October, SecureID partnered with Sterling Bank to provide a Biometric Identification Card to bring financial services to the so-called unbanked population. The company’s efforts also support the plan by the country’s central bank plan to reduce Nigeria’s unbanked rate from 46.3 per cent to 20 percent by 2020. The company is also PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant.