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International Companies Bid To Print Check Books for Ethiopia

International Companies Bid To Print Check Books for Ethiopia

Three Indian companies are in contention to print first-ever standardized checks for the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), reports Business Standard. The companies are Shree Nidhi Secure Printing Plc (SNSP), Madras Security Printers Plc (MSP) and Manipal Group.

The NBE, along with Ethiopian Bankers’ Association, decided  to standardized checks in order to avoid forgery and expedite heck clearing and settlement.  The checks will include security features that are hard to replicate and a technology solution, called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

The NBE started taking bids in May 2013 and had narrowed the field down to five. UK company TALL Security Print Plc, which is  known for business checks, credit and secure encoded documents, and provides electronic payment solutions to financial institutions; and De La Rue Security Print, which specializes in manufacturing and producing banknotes along with commercial security printing and papermaking, are also in the competition.

SNSP, which was established in 1994, specializes in manufacturing printing check books, variable data printing, security printing printers and binders. But the 25-year-old MSP is involved in smartcard and security printing activities for the banking sector and revenue authorities.

Starting this week, proposals from the companies will be evaluated by a bid committee, which includes the property and services management and clearing and settlement department heads of the NBE, as well as advisers from commercial banks.

“The evaluation process will include preliminary technical evaluation of mandatory requirements, a non-technical evaluation, reference site and financial evaluation. Once a proposal passes the technical evaluations, it will be given marks out of a hundred, based on non-technical evaluation. This will make up 40 percent of the grade, with financial evaluations making up the other 60 percent,” reports Business Standard.

The winner will be expected to print 231,513 corporate check books with 50 leaves each, 154,345 check books with 100 leaves each and 21,198 and 12,050 personal checck books with 25 and 50 leaves each, respectively.

Two previous bidders, Ethiopian Trade Contract and Sudan Currency Printing Press were disqualified.