Epayplus sees Govt saving $17.5mn annually by stopping import of bank cards
By Amid Nigeria’s pressured forex markets, the nation can save as much as 50 percent of the $35million (N16.9billion) spent annually by some banks that still import smart cards, says Bayo Adeokun, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Payplus Limited (Epayplus).
Adeokun disclosed this on Thursday during a facility tour of Electronic Payplus multibillion naira production facility in Lagos.
The company which has just injected additional $2million (N960million) to boost production in line with its built annual production capacity of about 60million noted that Federal and State governments should start looking inwards for solutions on digital and smart card products.
BusinessDay’s sterling findings at the company’s facility in Lagos only questions some public servants claims that Nigeria companies do not have the capacity to produce locally documents like International Passports, Voters Cards, and other identity management jobs.
“Electronic Payplus Limited is known for its world class service delivery, and has been doing business in both the financial and non-financial sectors of the Nigerian economy as well as in regions beyond Nigeria. Our facility is the first and only purpose-built personalisation bureau in Nigeria at present”, Adeokun said.
“Government needs to patronize local companies by enforcing local content policy. Government should discourage importation of SIM Cards by Telecommunication Companies (Telcos). Even international passports will be cheaper when printed locally”, Adeokun noted.
Electronic Payplus Limited facility is the first and only purpose-built personalization bureau in Nigeria at present.
“Covid-19 pandemic has given credence to the need to look inwards for manufacturing. We have capacity to do 60million cards per annual. By 2023, we should be doing 90percent of our card production capacity”, he said.
With almost 16 years of expertise, the company has proven expertise in the following fields –government, commercial, finance and epayments. Its banking solutions include EMV payment card, Contactless and many more. Electronic Payplus limited also offers effective commercial payment solutions, while its government solutions include National Identity cards and more.
The CEO noted that 95 percent of the company’s revenues come from smart cards production. “By 2024, our projection is to have 50 percent of our revenue from digital solutions while the remaining 50 percent will be from smart cards”, he noted.
While adapting to the dynamic nature of the EMV system, Electronic Payplus provides support to customer banks through their whole project from the idea to meaning and growth, up to the card personalization and supplementary logistics. The company’s vast personalization competences and supplementary services enables it to provide all types of cards such as ID, driving license and official documents for governments, contactless and prepaid for transportation operators and access badges for enterprises.
Its banking solutions include: EMV Payment card supply, contact, contactless and dual interface, project management, bio-data and biometric enrollment plus audit services, innovative card bodies, card mailing and fulfillment, card delivery service, card instance issuance, and card fraud solution.
The commercial solutions are: transportation cards, health cards, automated fare collection solution for rail, cable car and buses, co-branded Identity cards for organization, personalization services and solutions, innovative card bodies, access cards, and loyalty cards.
Currently, its government solutions are National Identity card and resident card for state governments. On chip embedding, Electronic Payplus has a state of the art chip embedding machine that can run huge amount of cards in a fraction of the time it would take a normal machine.
For card design and printing, its card printing service provides durable cards with vivid coulours that help project clients brand the way they want; while its personalization services include indent printing, embossing and fulfilment services.