By John Shiklam
Shareholders of the New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) Limited, jointly owned by the 19 northern states, would receive dividends from their investments after a very long time.
The Chairman Board of Directors of the NNDC, Mr. Tanimu Yakubu disclosed this while presenting the company’s financial statement at its 52nd Annual General Meeting in Kaduna.
Yakubu said that the directors of the company has proposed for approval the appropriation of gross dividend of N100 million at the rate of 20 kobo per share based on earnings per share of 55 kobo.
Yakubu added that another additional appropriation of N15 million each for the Young Professional Development Trust (TPDT)and Musa Bello Learning Resource Centres were also approved.
He noted that the progress achieved by the company during the year under review yielded a turnover of N854.13 million against the corresponding period of N637.24 million, which represented an increase of N216.90 million or 34 per cent.
According to him, 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 N62.93 million or 9.8 per cent.
Yakubu said, profit before tax for the year ended March 31, 2020, stood at N273.22 million against the corresponding period’s pre-tax loss of N6.61 million adding that shareholder’s funds stood at N14.70 billion as at 31st March, 2020.
He said that the NNDC would continue to manage investments in associate and quoted companies with a view to optimising returns while pursuing an optimal management strategy for the subsidiary companies.
He added that the nominal value of the NNDC quoted investments stood at N761.02 million as against their combined market value at N6.26 billion as at March 31, 2020.
He said that the YPDT would continue to produce professionals in accountancy, stock broking, insurance and ICT whose primary aim would be to develop manpower resources within owner states.
Yakubu 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 recognise as our most important asset.”
The NNDC chairman said that best practice of good corporate governance are being put in place as part of the efforts to reposition and rebrand the company.
He said that in 2020 the board of the NNDC approved the review of the its Memorandum and Articles of Association (MEMART) in line with the current structure of the company, and to comply with the recently amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 as well as to reflect the recommended practices of the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG).
Yakubu further said that the Office of the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser had been redesigned to include additional responsibility of Chief Compliance Officer.
“In addition, a code of ethics and business conduct has been developed for the NNDC group,” he said.
