Mouka Upbeat Despite Harsh Operating Environment

Gilbert Ekugbe
The management of Mouka Limited has expressed confidence in the Nigerian market despite the harsh business environment for manufacturing concerns in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer, Mouka Limited, Mr. Ray Murphy, explained that just like every other part of the world where manufacturing concerns face one challenge or the other, Nigeria is not peculiar, reaffirming its commitment to expand its footprint across Nigeria.

Murphy stated this on the sidelines of its scholarship award ceremony in Lagos over the weekend.
In his words: “Presently, our focus continues to remain on building our franchise in Nigeria especially as the economy is growing back again with a population of about 200 million people, it is the largest market in Africa and there are still many opportunities that exist in Nigeria without expanding our footprints outside the borders of Nigeria at this time.”

He stressed: “Regardless of where we operate, there is always going to be bumps on the roads to success. Although in the last five to six years we have experienced a couple of rounds of recession and the country has emerged from those recessions. There is always going to be unpredictability, there is always going to be operating challenges, but as a business, we are resilient and we have been able to overcome these challenges as well.”

On scarcity of foreign exchange, the Mouka boss stated that although accessing forex remained a challenge to the manufacturing sector, but stated that Mouka has tactics and plans in place to manage its forex needs.

He however announced plans to list on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) later in the future, but stated that the company is presently focused on surpassing the expectations of its new shareholders.

“The Nigerian stock market remains an option for Mouka going forward, but our plans at the moment is with our new shareholders which we have raised funds from and it will be sufficient to meet our financial needs in the next few years, however listing on the NSE still remains an option open to Mouka at some point in the future,” he averred.

According to him, Mouka holds its business partners in high esteem, saying that they have made the company proud through their immense contribution to this organisation’s growth trajectory.