CardCentre invests in SIM card plant in Nigeria

CardCentre Nigeria Limited CCNL), a subsidiary of Chams Plc and leading producer of cards in Nigeria, has invested in the construction of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card manufacturing plant as part of the Chams Group’s contribution to the development of local content in the telecoms sector. Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Chams PLC, Mr. Demola
Aladekomo who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard Hi-Tech   recently, said   that by the time the manufacturing plant begins production, Nigerian telecoms service providers will no longer need to import full body SIM card.

Sim-cardsAladekomo said he even took advantage of the last Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain, to discuss the project with two European firms, and with everything going according to plan, the production of SIM cards in Nigeria by CardCentre will commence by the end of the third quarter this year.

He added that the project will contribute positively to capacity building in the telecoms sector and also help to reduce unemployment in the country.

“We are already discussing with our European partners. We had positive discussions with them at the 2015 MWC in Spain and expect to sign agreements with them by the end of May so that by the end of third quarter, we would have finished building the plant and begin production immediately.”

Aladekomo noted that having pioneered identity management and payments system in Nigeria, the Chams Group is better positioned, through CardCentre, to get the go-ahead on the project from the federal government.

According to him, “Over dependence on foreign goods is killing local companies. We have the state-of-the-art technology to produce the body here in Nigeria. The chip can be imported while the body can be manufactured locally with SIM Card Milling and Embedding Machine.” Cardcentre specializes in printing and personalization of card/ smart card products, PVC pre-printed cards, PVC based ATM/Debit cards such as MasterCard, Visa, Verve and Genesis as well as GSM SIM cards.

it is currently the first and only private-owned EMV perso plant in Nigeria with laser engraving module to personalize all PC/PVC cards. In 2007,  CCNL partnered with parent company, Chams,    to set up the largest card personalization plant in Abuja to produce 56m permanent voters cards in 90 days for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This earned it the world record for producing largest volume of cards within the shortest possible time.
By Emeka Aginam