Chams Plc, an indigenous ICT firm in Nigeria, has announced the shutdown of the Ikeja ChamsCity digital Mall, due to lack of use of its digital citizen registration and mass enrolments infrastructure, losing about N9.2 billion. Other business process outsourcing services offered at the digital mall that includes contact centre services, computer based testing, pre-qualification employee tests and staff training, will now be offered by ChamsCity from Its new location in Victoria Island, Lagos.

In a statement, Mr. Ola Olasiyan, Chief Service Officer, Chams Plc, said:  “We lost  N9.2 billion on ChamsCity, ChamsSwitch and CardCentre operations and have decided to close down loss makers tied to our concession on the national identity project.” It would be recalled that ChamsCity was built in 2009 after its parent company,  Chams Plc got a concession agreement from the Federal Government under the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to deliver the National Identity project for the country.

ChamsCity malls in Lagos, Abuja, Benin and Port Harcourt were established as Nigeria’s pioneer digital mall to provide enormous capital-intensive resources which will accelerate citizen enrolment and registration for National identity management system and for large scale data management in a conducive, serene, and secured environment.

“We have remained resilient, and have taken learnings from the frustration of our concession on the national identity management project.  With the success recorded on the ongoing Bank Verification Number (BVN) Project and a good number   of other Identity related projects that Chams is working on, we now see a clearer, more-timely and potentially large opportunity to help transform the identity management sector of the economy. Hence our decision to refocus our efforts and investments by streamlining ChamsCity,” said Olasiyan.

Closure of Ikeja ChamsCity digital mall in Lagos means that all four ChamsCity facilities situated in Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, and Benin have now been dissolved without serving the primary purpose of their establishment.