ICPS receives $ 3.5m support from Danish gov’t

The Danish government has handed over a $ 3.5 million state of the art card and security printing equipment to Intelligent Card Production Systems (ICPS), a subsidiary of Margins Group, a Ghanaian company.

The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Margit Thompson, who presented the facility to the management of the company in Accra, explained that the Danida Mixed Credit was part of a $10 million ICPS project.

This, according to her, had enabled the significant upgrade of security and printing facilities of ICPS to be in pole position to be an African wide leader in security printing and manufacture of documents and cards, and identify solutions and secure applications.

The support, Madam Thompson said, would see ICPS undertake the printing of the full range of security documents, personalised ID cards, as well as fully configured data card personalisation systems.

That will see a transformation change in ICPS’s technical capability in the areas of secure printing and manufacture of high security documents and cards, identity solutions and secure applications, ultimately enabling the factory to become the only one in Ghana certified for the manufacturing and production of Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) and other high security international certified documents.

She expressed her joy at the upgrade of the facility of ICPS to meet the production of cards and security systems of the highest quality. “This will enable the company to 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 form factors such as ID cards, cheques, labels in the country and the West Africa sub-region.”

Madam Thompson pledged her support to Margins Group to assist the company to meet its goal of being the first and the only full service Ghanaian-owned company certified in card and security printing in sub-Saharan Africa. In his welcome address, Chairman of Margins Group, Moses Baiden, explained that the Mixed Credit facility was a bold step in the operations advancement of the company.

He stated: “The upgrade of our facility will enable the company to 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 form factors such as ID cards, cheque and labels in the country and the West African sub-region.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, commended the Chairman of Margins Group, Moses Baiden, and his partners for their entrepreneurial drive. She prayed that the company and its businesses group become one of the leading brands in Africa.

Ms. Tetteh used the occasion to urge banks in the country to give long-term credit facilities to Ghanaian businesses to enable them grow like the Margins Group. The Minister of State responsible for Private-Public Partnerships, Alhaji Rashid Pelpuo, noted that the vision of the government was to push the private sector to become the avowed vehicle for the growth and development of the country.

A Director of Margins Group, Frank Oye, commended the Danish Ambassador and the Embassy for the enormous 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 for Africa.

Mr. Peter Blom, also a director of the group, commended Access Bank for providing the local guarantee, and CAL Bank as the local financier of the factory, and Danish Export Credit (EKF) for guaranteeing the transaction 100%, an expression of their confidence in Margins Group and Ghana as an investment destination.