Chairman Board of Directors of the New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) Limited, Tanimu Yakubu, has said the company’s shareholders would receive their dividends soon.
Yakubu stated this while presenting the financial statement of the company during its 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held in Kaduna.
He said, in recognising the results for the period under review, the directors proposed for approval: Appropriation of gross dividend of N100 million at the rate of 20 kobo per share based on earnings per share of 55 kobo.
Additional appropriations of N15 million each for the Young Professional Development Trust and Musa Bello Learning Resource Center Funds respectively, totaling N30 million.
Commenting on the progress achieved by the company during the year under review, the chairman noted that, turnover stood at N854.13 million against the corresponding period’s figure of N637.24 million which represents an increase of N216.90 million or 34%. Operating expenses for the period under review stood at N580.91 million as against the preceding year’s figure of N643.84 million giving a favourable variance of N62.93 million or 9.8 per cent..
“Pre-tax profit for the year ended 31st March, 2020 stood at N273.22 million against the corresponding period’s pre-tax loss of N6.61 million. Shareholder’s funds stood at N14.70 billion as at 31st March, 2020.
He further said that the company will continue to manage investments in associate and quoted companies with a view to optimizing returns while pursuing an optimal management strategy for the subsidiary companies, adding that the nominal value of NNDC quoted investments stood at N761.02 million as against their combined market value at N6.26 billion as at March 31, 2020.
On manpower development, the chairman said, the Young Professionals Development Trust will continue to produce professionals in Accountancy, Stock Broking, Insurance and ICT whose primary aim is to develop Manpower Resources within Owner States.
He said, “Staff development has continued to receive our encouragement and support. We remain more than ever committed to the empowerment of our employees whom we recognize as our most important asset”.
The chairman said, as part of efforts to re-position and re-brand the company. best practices of good corporate governance are being put in place in NNDC.
Rel/Adamu Yusuf