Professor Adebayo Akinde, chairman, Chams Nigeria Plc, has said that ChamsAccess Limted, a newly created subsidiary of Chams Nigeria Plc one of the e- solutions company in Nigeria has invested about N350 million in a world class data centre located at its offices in Lagos and Abuja respectively.
He said that ChamsAccess Limited was born out of the need to bridge a perceived information gap in the country and to provide the public with the quality and convenience of service they deserve.
ChamsAccess Limited, according to him, would be deploying and maintaining ChamsAccess Service Terminals (Cast) which is a 24/7 self-service, e-payment platform that allows the use of payment cards.
According to Akinde, the terminals facilitate payment of bills, purchase of airtime recharge cards, telephony services and video emailing.
"The company would also deploy as sell automated teller machines (ATMs). Thus, the ChamsAccess’ vision is to be a world class company that provides the most convenient way to interactive solutions including bill payments, telephony, internet services, e-ticketing and boarding," he said.
He explained that Chams is committed to excellence and the formulation and deployment of innovative technology which is not only changing the face of the industry, but also cut across all sectors of the economy.
He also said to make this possible, Chams had built enabling infrastructure to support its key public sector projects. Akinde, while noting that among the public sector projects is the concession awarded the Chams Consortium by the Federal Government of Nigeria to issue the new national identity cards, said the chip-based identity cards, with full-fledged biometric data capture, would have payment capabilities that will ride on the trusted ChamsSwitch backbone on the back-end and would be given a front-end interface for usability through an array of infrastructure being deployed by ChamsAccess such as the e_booth consisting of three ChamsAccess terminals and an ATM.
"Tens of millions of these payment-enabled identity cards would be issues in the coming months which will open a world of business opportunities for banks, government agencies, merchants as well as small and medium scale businesses," he said, adding that ChamsAccess is positioned to be the preferred medium for acceptance and transaction of these services.
While informing that Chams has made every endeavors both investment and clientele, to bring ChamsAccess Terminals up on a solid ground, Akinde appealed to the members of the new board to exhibit "a sense of responsibility, integrity, accountability, fair-mindedness as well as ethical standing in the community.