Kofo Akinkugbe is the Nigerian woman behind West Africa’s first and only smart card production plant, producing 200 million smart cards per year.
Her company, SecureID, creates sim and ATM cards for clients in 21 African countries, according to Face2Face.
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One of only six smart card manufacturing facilities in Africa, Akinkugbe’s firm is the first in sub-Saharan Africa to be Visa, MasterCard and
Verve certified, EnlightenmentAfrica reports.
Launched in 2005, SecureID manufactures banking and telecoms cards with mag stripe and chip encoding tech.
It has developed digital solutions for the banking, public, and identification sectors in Nigeria.
At the end of 2016, the company began to target the telecommunications sector with the opening of a sim card manufacturing plant, according to ThisDay.
Before the local sim manufacturing facilities were launched, Nigeria bought sim and ATM cards from China, paying billions for the needs of its 190 million people. according to Face2Face.
Imports from China are no longer necessary thanks to SecureID’s manufacturing plant, which produces 200 million smart cards annually, LionessesofAfrica reports.
Akinkugbe is a mathematics graduate of the University of Lagos.
She spent 12 years in banking, first at International Merchant Bank and then at Chartered Bank, during which time she was awarded a British Government Scholarship to study for an MBA at the Strathclyde Graduate Business School in Scotland, according to her LinkedIn.
