Intelligent Card Production Systems (ICPS), a subsidiary of Margins Group limited, has taken delivery of a 3.5 million dollar state- of –the- art card and security printing equipment by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) in Accra.
The machine which would enable a significant upgrade of security and printing facilities forms part of a $10 million ICPS upgrade project.
The DANIDA mixed credit facility support extended to ICPS would help undertake the printing of the full range of security documents, personalized ID cards and fully configured data card personalization systems.
The duties which are going to be discharged by the machine would see a transformational change in ICPS’s technical capability in the areas of secure printing and the manufacture of high security documents and cards, identity solutions and secure applications; ultimately enabling the factory to become the only factory in Ghana certified for the manufacturing and production of Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) and other high security internationally certified documents.
The occasion was also to showcase ICPS factory and capacity and the expanded AFIS as well as central site of NIA, which has been developed jointly with Dermalog of Germany the leader in biometrics together with IDFG of Denmark and identity management systems the private partner to NIA, in a Public Private Partnership, according to the requirements specified by National Identification Authority (NIA) over the last two years.
Inspecting the multi-million dollar facility before handing over, the out-going Danish Ambassador, Margit Thompson, together with Foreign, Minister Hanna Tetteh, and Rashid Pelpou, Minister of State in charge of Public Private Partnership, expressed joy at the upgrade of the facility of ICPS to meet the production of cards and security systems of the highest quality.
She stressed that the machine would enable the company achieve its vision of producing world class products in Ghana and to contribute to the knowledge industry in the area of secured printing across different from factors including ID cards, cheques, labels in the country and the West Africa sub-region.
Mr. Moses Baiden, Chairman Margins Group explained that the mixed credit facility was a bold step to the operational advancement of the company.
According to him, the system was ready to commence factory acceptance tests to be followed by site acceptance test which would enable NIA to issue smart national ID cards contact, contactless or dual interface on any card substrate as the case maybe, to all Ghanaians and foreigners as per NIA’s mandate.
He indicated that the success of the Margins ID Group is a testament to the fact that DANIDA’s efforts and its impact, has been crucially significant in the private sector in the Ghana despite the fact that some DANIDA funded projects have failed.
Mr. Baiden recounted his company’s relationship with the Danish government dating back from 1998and expressed their appreciation for the gesture done them.
Frank Oye, a director with Margins Company commended the Danish Ambassador and the Embassy for the support in creating the enabling environment for local companies to thrive and contribute their quota to the economic renaissance of Ghana as the beacon of hope of Africa.
Appreciation was also expressed to Access Bank and CAL bank as local guarantee and local financier respectively of the factory, as well as Danish Export credit (EKF) for guaranteeing the transaction accurately.
Intelligent Card Production Systems (ICP), a subsidiary of the Margins Group is the first ISO 9001-2008 certified full service Card Manufacturing facility from card fabrication to fulfillment, with a production capacity for the card manufacturing and personalization of up to 60 million cards per year, over 21 million ID cards per year and over 51 Million Demographic ATM Personalization capacity, ICPS provides cards to Africa and the world; government, institutions, organizations, corporate, non-governmental organisations and associations.
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