NASPS – a Lotus Flower in the Desert

The Central Bank of Egypt is not the only organisation in the country to have created a brand-new world-class production facility in the desert outside Cairo. Another is the National Company for Advanced Industries and Integrated Strategic Printing Solutions (NASPS), which unites under one (lotus flower-shaped) roof the production of a wide range of ID and travel documents, excise stamps, holograms, security paper, payment cards, personalisation systems and the development of information systems and storage.

Described as one of the most advanced sovereign security printing facilities in the world, the unique ultra-modern complex is intended to make the country fully independent in terms of the production of state and ID documents, and forms a central part of the government’s strategy for digital transformation and automation.

The complex took 18 months to build, was opened in April 2021 by Egypt’s President, and spans a site of just over 100 acres in the New Administrative Capital, encompassing an administrative centre and offices, production buildings, services, and a data centre. It was constructed at a reported cost of approximately $1 billion.

Vertical integration forms part of the strategy, with self-sufficiency not just for the documents themselves but their components. There are two cylinder mould made paper lines equipped with short formers with a combined capacity of 12,000 tonnes per annum, with accompanying systems for producing watermarks. The intention is to provide banknote paper for both Egypt and other countries, as well as security paper – based on cotton, wood pulp, and other natural fibres such as hemp or a combination thereof – for documents such as stamps and certificates.

NASPS has also set up a hologram production facility involving design, e-beam origination, embossing (up to 690mm wide), demetallisation and finishing. It is already producing the foil stripes and patches for a number of documents, including Egyptian excise tax stamps. Holographic threads for banknotes are on the horizon, as is metallisation and, potentially, its own foil production.

With the CBE’s new state-of-the-art banknote production and distribution, the creation of NASPS to produce all the country’s security document requirements and features, and the prospect of a new mint, in conjunction with the UK’s Royal Mint (see CN September 2022), on the horizon, it looks like Egypt is well on the way to a establishing itself as a leading force in sovereign security production in the region and beyond.