Adeyipo : CWG is completely out of the Wood

The Group Managing Director/CEO, CWG, Mr. Adewale Adeyipo in this interview said the Pan-African systems solutions company is completely out of the woods, he highlighted the company’s expansion to some Sub-Saharan African countries, challenges and prospect of paying dividend in 2022. Kayode Tokede present the excerpts

On the backdrop of improved earnings in 2021 financial year, when is CWG management considering dividend payout to shareholders?

What we did was to take a holistic approach by getting to solve some of the very fundamental challenges the company had suffered in the last few years and I can say we are completely out of the woods right now.

We could tell from the performance of the company and I am certain by next time we gather again, we would probably be discussing precisely on the dividend being paid out to shareholders and that I can assure you.

Take us through the steps you took that get CWG out of the woods?

It’s not necessarily about CWG 2021 performance. If you’re also familiar with the company’s 2017 to 2019 books, you will realize that the company had some challenges.

From 2019 and till date, we have been changing the main drivers of the business.  There are major changes in the technology trend. What we have done is moving away from traditional and conventional sales of technology.

And getting into the real application of technology, owing some of our own intellectual properties based on various variables and what we consider to be feasible in this market.

We have taken this by extensions to other regions precisely in Ghana and Uganda from there we are serving other Sub-Saharan African countries.

The prospects are very high. The ups are extremely very good. We are confident about what we have done and I also think we have the right people to drive the change we are looking towards.

We are also excited about the future we have created.  It’s not a quick fix and the permanent fix is what will propel us to a kind of prosperity and kind of organization that the shareholders have invested in.

I must also say a very big thank you to the shareholders as they have been quite supportive and they believed in what we shared with them some few years back and I’m glad we are reporting a good result and also a very good future.

How is the company sourcing FX and how the federal government supported the sector?

It’s challenging. It will be an understatement if I say there is a formula to deal with it because there’s no formula.

We take it on a case-by-case basis and every transaction we treat on what is good. There are businesses that we have to walk away from owing to the foreign exchange volatility that that is involved.  We do not have one formula that fixes every situation.

And as for help from the Federal government, they have been doing what they could, given the circumstances and troubles. We are not there yet but we will continue to try until we get to that comfortable position.

The company signed a partnership with Ibadan Disco in terms of providing a hundred thousand meters. How will this impact the revenue growth of the company?

It will impact on our revenue drive as the metering business is a very large business going by the metering gaps in Nigeria today. The current Disco that we work with it’s just one out of many that we have.

But more importantly, smart metering solutions are credible and usable in other regions. We are expanding conversation and engagements with other Discos also. Hopefully before the end of the year, we will have 2-3 or more other discos on board.

In terms of revenue, it’s very large revenue judging by the volume of the contract value. And these are some of the drivers like I said. You don’t come about building a smart metering solution in 2-month and these are some of the pillars have been created in the last three years. Of which you will start to see the results from the end of this year.

Take us try some of the rundown of the products?

We have five major verticals and as I mentioned during the 8year. Our own definition of innovation is not anything out of this world. What we are looking at is what are those challenges today in sub-Saharan Africa and how we can use technology to close some of these gaps.

The smart metering that was created and ERP platform precisely made for SME’s in order for them to understand their business better and for them to present their business to prospective investors.

We have also played in the payment platforms that are serving like a vending platform. Today we vend airtime for like five financial institutions and we also using the same platform in other areas that are relevant.

We also have something that fit into the category of exco account. It’s a new product that we will be rolling out before the end of the year. If we go by the engagement that we have had so far, the new product might be one of our major flagship products  in 2023. A lot will be coming out of this space that you will really have to look out for.