Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 8- NSI Group, a pan-African company specializing in secured documents and electronic payment solutions, has announced plans to establish a base in Kenya.
The move follows De La Rue’s decision to cease operations in Kenya by the end of March, leaving a gap in the market.
A statement from NSI Group said it will start an office in Nairobi in April.
Richard Michel, the Chairman of NSI, cited the region’s potential for growth as the main reason for the decision.
“We have decided to commence operations in Nairobi, Kenya by April this year, based on the enormous potential for expanding our business in the area,” Michel explained.
Michel stated that the company already has a substantial customer base in Kenya, indicating a promising start for the company.
With this new office, the company, founded in Kigali in 2003 is poised to continue its success in the Kenyan market and beyond.
NSI Group has been gradually expanding its presence in Africa with subsidiaries in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Djibouti.
According to a statement posted on the company profile, NSI Group says it is committed to contributing to the development of electronic payments in Africa by providing financial institutions, particularly MFIs, with a complete “plug and play” service and launching a wide range of electronic payment products.
The company also seeks to drastically reduce the time it takes to make cards and checkbooks available and to help control the cost of secure cards and documents so that they are accessible to as many people as possible, especially the unbanked.
The company also seeks to offer institutions a wide range of secure documents that fit their budget, allowing them to guarantee the authenticity of the documents they issue.
It also aims to provide technological, organizational, procedural and commercial solutions to financial institutions wishing to initiate/accelerate their Digital Transformation with a modern mobile payment/electronic payment offer.
The NSI Group’s development project has also been focusing on expanding its activities in the French speaking countries on the west and central part of the continent including Congo Brazzaville, Bénin Cameroon, Gabon, Mali, Côte d’ivoire, Sénégal and Togo.
NSI Group further says it is committed to working with its partners in order to meet the expectations of countries in terms of security of all valuable administrative documents.
“The main task is to design and produce security prints for various public services for various public services of the State and the private sector, whose counterfeiting and falsification or alteration are made difficult by means of appropriate technical processes and secure storage,” NSI Group says.
The move by De La Rue to quit the Kenyan market is however said to have hastened efforts by NSI to fill the void by spreading its tentacles to Kenya.
De La Rue’s departure has had a ripple effect in the banking industry with lenders reporting cheque book shortages.
Earlier, Absa Bank Kenya informed its customers on the scarcity.
In January 13, the High Court ordered Thomas De la Rue who owns the De La Rue Currency and Security Print Company to pay Sh1.1 billion in taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), revoking an appeal by the firm not pay.
De La Rue Currency and Security Print Company had filed an appeal to challenge a previous ruling by the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) which said the company could not offset royalties paid to its parent company De La Rue International as an allowable expense under Section 15(1) of the Income Tax Act.
NSI currently supplies cheque books to 60 banks.
Some of its Kenyan banks include Equity Bank, KCB, DTB, NCBA and I&M Bank in DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi.
At the moment, it produces Bank cards for different banks.
NSI also possesses different digital banking channels for small and medium financial institutions
