The cards are expected to be produced at N65 each.
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, made this known to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Maku was joined at the briefing by the Minister of State Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama.
He said the contract, with a delivery period of seven months, was awarded to Messrs ACT Technologies Limited.
He explained that Section 16 of the 2010 Electoral Act, (as amended) mandated INEC to print and issue voter cards to all registered voters in the country.
He said it was in pursuant of that mandate that INEC issued temporary voter cards to the 73 million Nigerians that were registered during the 2011 nationwide voter registration.
The minister added that it was in order to meet up with the requirement of further elections that INEC found it expedient to replace the temporary voter cards with permanent ones.
Maku added that the permanent cards contained security features such as hologram, microtext, guilloche, barcode, fingerprints, contactless/embedded chip with printed voter details and photograph that would last for at least 10 years if well protected.
According to him, the production of the 40 million cards is just the first phase of the exercise.
Also at the FEC meeting, Jonathan was said to have taken exception to the attitude of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to his earlier directive on procurement of locally produced goods.
Maku said the President had directed the MDA to list items they would be procuring this year and sort out those that should be sourced locally ahead of the signing of the 2012 budget.
He said, "You will recollect that last year, the President directed that all procurement must first focus on made in Nigeria goods, that all items that are produced locally must first be considered in the public procurement exercise at least at the federal level. This is to encourage local producers and to also encourage the creation of jobs within the economy for the unemployed and school leavers.
"The President noted in council today (Wednesday) that in spite of this directive, the MDAs have yet to fully implement it. So he asked all MDAs as we prepare for the 2012 budget year to list out in our procurement plans those things that should be procured locally. This is to ensure that we encourage local producers and also encourage domestic economic growth." Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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