Mint in poor shape, operates obsolete equipment
By Enitar Ugwu
THE worst fears of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) management have been confirmed on the state of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC): Most of the currency printing machines are old and in various stages of redundancy.
Some senior officials of the CBN led by its governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, were in the Lagos office of the Printing Company last week. They discovered that the company has eight currency printing machines, four of which were installed between 1976 and 1979, and the remaining between 1980 and 1993.
A breakdown shows that the very first currency printing machine was installed on May 18, 1976. It is currently out of use.
The second and third machines were installed on April 13, and May 13, 1977 and are also currently not in use due to lack of ink to carry out the printing of N5.00 currency notes.
Sources told The Guardian that the ink is usually purchased abroad.
The fourth machine, which was installed on May 19, 1979 has also been out of use since last year and is said to be awaiting refurbishment.
The remaining four are however in use. The fifth was installed on March 19, 1980; while the sixth was on April 28, 1981.
The rest two machines were installed on April 28, 1986 and June 4, 1993 respectively.
Sources told The Guardian that Professor Soludo was not happy with what he met at the printing press as he reportedly shook his head repeatedly during the inspection.
Earlier, during his press briefing in Lagos on the guidelines and incentives attached to the consolidation of banks, Soludo had remarked that with the take-over of the mint, the apex bank was going to assess its facilities and put things there right.
He had also frowned at present situation where a larger chunk of the country's currency is being printed abroad.
Soludo pledged that by the time the apex bank takes full control of the mint, this practice would end.
The Guardian learnt that the first batch of N200 denomination was printed locally in March, this year.
Hitherto, the N5, N10, N20, N50 and N100 notes were printed locally while the rest are printed abroad.
The fifth and sixth machines print N100 denominations while the seventh is used for N200 notes.
A source within the mint confirmed to The Guardian that it was a tough battle" before the printing of the N200 notes was allowed locally.
Such projects, it was learnt, were always contracted out with the excuse that the Mint could not handle large quantity jobs.
The very first N200 batch printed by the Mint in March this year, was for N50 million, an amount considered "paltry" by inside sources.
This view tallies with that of Senator Farouk Bello while kicking against the introduction of the N1,000 notes earlier in the year.
Bello, who is on the senate committee on Banking told a press conference: "The only thing for the introduction of the new notes, is that perhaps government wants to give somebody contract because, as they said, NSPMC is unable to meet the currency need of the country."
He had added: "What that means is that these monies are going to be contracted out and be brought in."
However, staffers of the mint have always faulted such allegation of unproductivity, insisting that the government is not keen on utilising their expertise.
The Presidency last year ordered the privatisation of the company and in the exercise, a Spanish company, Real Caja De la monde, emerged as the preferred bidder.
The CBN, as the majority holder in the NSPMC, was believed to have expressed preference for Thomas De la Rue, a British firm, which has 25 per cent equity stake in the minting enterprise before the equity restructuring in 2002.
The apex bank had anchored its refusal on the ground that Thomas De La Rue had the requisite expertise and background to run the mint, being the original technical partner for the enterprise.
The apex bank had also argued that the minting enterprise performed well under the De La Rue team until indigenous managers took full control.
Three firms, Real Caja De la Monde of Spain, Giesche & Devriene of Germany and Thomas De la Rue, were pre-qualified for the purchase of the controlling equity of the Mint before the suspension of the core investor sale.
Subsequently, all the three showed interest in the management contract of the firm.
However, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced the restructuring of the NSPMC, in what was believed to be an attempt to make the firm more attractive.
The BPE had last year disclosed that the CBN would take over the running of the Mint.
In a press statement, the privatisation agency had said: "Following persistent difficulties encountered in establishing the full extent of liabilities and other due diligence data necessary to conclude the privatisation process of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited (NSPMC) by sale of 51 per cent to a core investor, President Olusegun Obasanjo has approved that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) acquires majority shares of the company, while the BPE sells 20 per cent of the shares to Nigerian citizens."
However, recently, the CBN was fully authorised to manage the Mint by the Presidency with a mandate to turn it around.
