Buhari Gives Nigeria’s Minting Company Sole Right To Produce E-passports

President Muhammadu Buhari holding his new diplomatic passport. Twitter

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Company (NSPMC) to solely produce and personalize all Nigerian E-passports and related documentation.

The directive was contained in a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

According to the statement, the renewed responsibility will end every existing memorandum of understanding and contracts on printing by other institutions and companies.

The company which has the objective of producing the nation’s currency notes and coins for the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as security documents for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government, banks and other blue-chip companies, is the largest banknote and security documents specialist printing company in West Africa.

Under the leadership of the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Mint was given targets after its performance was rapidly dwindling in terms of both currency production and security documents prior to 2014.

According to the Managing Director of The Mint, Mr Abbas Masanawa, the printing agency has witnessed turnover since the targets.

“The Mint has returned to profitability. From a moribund organization with heavy losses, the company grew from a loss position of N14. 6 million in 2014 to a profit of N14. 3 billion in 2018. Turnover also grew from N17.8 billion in 2014 to N61. 4 billion in 2018.

“Other achievements include enhanced production capacity, revenue diversification, reduced cost of production, the institutionalization of corporate governance, improved staff welfare and industrial harmony, among others.

“As we are moving to the Next Level, and poised to boost national security and integrity, we will conserve scarce foreign exchange, improve revenue generation, create job opportunities, and boost acquisition/transfer of technology.”