BoI pledges to aid smart card production

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has restated its commitment to supporting smart card manufacturing company, SecureID Limited, to expand its production capacity.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of BoI, Dr Olasupo Olusi, committed when he led the bank’s management team to SecureID’s plant in Lagos.

SecureID is a smart card manufacturing company based in Nigeria, serving clients across 21 African countries.

Olusi said SecureID’s successes are “a classic example of Nigeria’s entrepreneurship at its very best”.

He added: “We are proud that BoI has supported SecureID since inception. We will continue to support them because the trajectory of their progress is amazing. It is one of those key success stories that you can point to and say this is truly remarkable coming out of Nigeria.”

Chairman of SecureID, Adedotun Sulaiman, said BoI has been supportive, contributing to the company’s growth as the first smartcard manufacturing plant in Nigeria.

He was confident that with BoI’s continued support, the company would move into uncharted territories.

“The future is bright. There are many areas we have not conquered yet, especially the public sector. We can produce voter cards and international passports. The possibilities are big,” Sulaiman said.

SecureID Founder/CEO, Kofo Akinkugbe, who led the BoI team on a tour of the plant, said the company was set up in 2005 to bridge the gap in the payment space.

According to her, BoI’s role in the company’s success goes beyond financing.

Akinkugbe said: “I would call BoI a stakeholder – a stakeholder in the vision and dream that we had from the beginning.

“BoI keeps giving us not just financial support but ensuring that we’re towing the right path.

“We are in the technology business, so we need to keep innovating, and BoI has played a fantastic role as a strategic partner to SecureID.

“They have seen us right from the beginning when we started our backward integration journey. We have made significant strides and have progressed to backwardly integrate other aspects of our business.

“BoI helps companies like us to expand through their development finance, whose tenor helps to patiently see this seed germinate.”

Akinkugbe said SecureID received the first financing facility from BoI in 2010, adding that the bank’s gender sensitivity made it easy for her.