New Nigerian Development Company Limited (NNDC) has declared a marginal increase in income and profit before tax of N114.92 million for the financial year ended 31st March 2018.
Addressing the 50th Annual General Meeting of the Company in Kaduna at the weekend, Chairman NNDC Board of Directors, Malam Tanimu Yakubu, said shareholders’ funds increased marginally in the financial year from N9.19 billion in the previous year to N9.23 billion in the year under review.
NNDC, who blamed the harsh economic environment for the low performance, assured that the future outlook of the company remained promising.
“The company’s performance during the financial year ended 31st March 2018 registered a marginal improvement of an 8.4% increase in operating income from N747.11 million to N809.68 million. Operating profit before tax reduced by 16.88% from N138.25 million to N114.92 million.
“Earnings per share decreased from 17.54 kobo as at 31st March 2017 to 13.93 kobo as at 31st March 2018. Shareholders’ Funds increased marginally from N9.19 billion in 2017 to N9.23 billion in 2018. The overall performance is a reflection of the volatile and harsh business environment we had to contend with.
“The Nigerian economy in 2017 gradually emerged out of recession with a very weak GDP growth rate of 1.40% in the year, against an annual population growth rate of 2.6%. Inflation trended downwards from 18.7% at the beginning of the year to 15.37% at the year end. The country’s external reserves rose to over $40 billion with surplus trade and current account balances.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria deployed a number of monetary policy tools to boost liquidity and achieve a rate convergence in the foreign exchange market by doing away with multiple foreign exchange windows. The parallel market exchange rate of the naira stabilized at N363/US$1 towards the end of the year. But the gap between this rate and the official rate at N306 to the US Dollar remained rather wide.
“The Company, in its efforts of developing quality manpower for the North and the country, in the period under review earmarked reasonable resources towards promoting the NNDC Young Professionals Development Trust and the Musa Bello Learning and Resource Centre.
“As at November 2017, the four NNDC/ICAN Centers; Kaduna, Kano, Ilorin and Gombe have produced 734 chartered accountants since the inception of the programme in November 2007. While we are not immune to the vagaries of both local and global economies, it is our expectation that with the new projects we intend to promote, the potential exists for NNDC to fulfill its future expectations.”
