By Gift Chapi-Odekina
A firm contracted by the Federal Government for the production of the country’s international passports, Iris Smart Technologies Limited, has said that the unavailability of foreign exchange to carry out its operations effectively by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was the reason for the passport scarcity in the country.
The company also accused the Nigeria Security Minting and Printing PLC of sabotaging its efforts because the government agency failed to secure the contract for the production of the passports.
Managing Director of the Company, Yinka Fisher, said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee to investigate the proposed domestication and processing of Nigerian international passports.
He said that prior to their engagement by the FG the country had a shabby passport administration.
He said, “Today we have a system where we have a central processing centre with a strong inventory control mechanism. Last year we delivered a record number of booklets to nis which was about 1.9 million booklets. This year for the first four months we have delivered neay 800, 000 boots. We are on course for another record supply this year.
“The Nigeria Immigration Service gave Nigeria Security Minting and Printing PLC the opportunity to print the first set of booklets. When they were delivered it was substandard. The government discarded them and decided to have an international tender for the production and embedding of chips.
“Five companies were invited. Three foreign companies, Nigeria Security Minting and Printing PLC and ourselves. The Nigeria Security Minting and Printing PLC were found to be technically incompetent and expensive.
The IRIS bid was found to be technically competent and price competitive. The award was given to IRIS to produce the passports.
“The project from the beginning was contractor financed. Government did not and has not put any money in it since the beginning. The funding had been conlelety by us. We took a N3 billion facility from the bank to start the project.
Till now government has still not put a
kobo. We get paid for the goods and services and we deliver. We don’t do revenue sharing. If we deliver 100 booklets they pay us for 100 booklets. To date goverrnment has a revenue of over 100 billion and over 200 million dollars.
There are two revenue streams. Local revenue is about 100 billion and overseas sales amount to 200 million dollars.
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