Chams’ SIM card business hits N5 billion turnover three years into launch

The enterprise created by a deal between Chams Holding and China’s Beijing Huahong IC Design to set up a SIM card-manufacturing facility for telecom firms in 2021 hit N4.9 billion in revenue last year, the financial holding company disclosed on Monday.

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“The first purchase order from MTN in December 2021 marked a significant milestone, and delivery commenced in August-September 2022,” Chams Holding said in a note to Nigerian Exchange.

The company operates four subsidiaries across identity management solutions, e-payment processing & switching, fintech & digital payment and card production.

Turnover for the SIM card-manufacturing business, which sits within its card-making unit called Cardcentre Nigeria Limited, stood at N419 million in 2022 when it began operation.
That surged to N1.4 billion the following year and more than tripled in 2024, when the contribution of the new business was pivotal in helping the card production division turn the tables on four years of loss-making.

The business is now a key cornerstone of the entire group’s revenue pool as it alone provided nearly one third of Chams Holding’s gross earnings for last year, when the group’s net profit accelerated to N391.1 million from N20.2 million.

In the Monday document, Chams Holding pointed the investing public to teething problems in the operations of UnionPay, a card payment partnership that Chamsswitch Limited, one of its subsidiaries, established with Wema Bank last July.

“The project’s commercial introduction has been delayed due to the emergence of several critical technical challenges post-launch. Consequently, the anticipated revenue stream from this partnership has not yet been realised,” it stated.

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The company noted that a roadmap on how to navigate the storm will be unravelled soon.

Chamsswitch made N382.9 million in net loss last year, the worst performer in the family of four operating companies, leaving the group’s profit subdued.

The group is restructuring from a non-operating financial holding company into a fully operational holding company and has gained shareholders’ consent to adopt “Chams Corporation Plc” to replace its current name as part of the process.

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It is currently out to source fresh equity capital, N4 billion from shareholders and N3.7 billion through private placement to pursue a couple of scale-up plans within and outside Nigeria. These include constructing an ultramodern EMV-certified card personalisation plant in Nigeria and funding cross-border digital payment innovations.

Cham Holding’s after-tax profit for the first six months of the year declined by more than half to N419 million, compared to a year ago, due to cost-of-sales pressures. Total assets, at N20.7 billion, were up by 1.6 per cent from last December.