Goddy Egene
Med-View Airline Plc is to diversify its operations and reduce dependence on air passenger traffic as major source of revenue, as part of efforts to improve earnings and deliver returns to shareholders.
The Chief Executive Officer of Med-View Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, disclosed this to shareholders at the third annual general meeting (AGM) of the company in Lagos yesterday. According to him, the company has been in discussion with some financial institutions to raise capital to turn around its fortune,
He said the diversification programme entails development of infrastructure that would make Med-View Airline Plc becomes a Maintenance and Repair Organisation(MRO) and Aviation Training Organisation (ATO).
“The infrastructural development of Med-View’s(MRO) and ATO are aimed at addressing overdependence on air passenger traffic to raise inflow. It will also generate more foreign currency, foreign direct investment (FDI) and restoration of fiscal sustainability. The company is in the final stage of embarking on the project in partnership with Chinese Construction Company (CCEC), who has submitted drawing plans and quotation to build the structure. This is done in order to foster continuous growth. The challenges associated with these anticipated projects will be significant but we remain optimistic on the sustainable growth in the company’s economic activity despite the current challenges,” he said.
The Med-View Airline boss said the reduction of fleet due to C-Check in Med-View affected the possible upward growth of the revenue of the company thereby resulting in a record low profit.
“The lack of support and trust which banks in Nigeria have towards aviation business did not help matters as none of the banks take risks but were not willing to take up this in particular,” he said.
However, he assured stakeholders that the board and management are continually seeking to achieve the best for the company, stressing that” Med-View is firmly on the path to improved performance, sustained growth, profitability and adequate returns to all stakeholders with the shortest possible period of time.”
Meanwhile, trading at the stock market closed on positive note as the three days losing streak was halted. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index rose by 0.47 per cent to close at 29,749.35, while market capitlisation added N61.9 billion to be at N13.1 trillion. However, activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 23.6 per cent to 301.1 million shares while value traded surged to N5.0 billion.
