Companies
FirstBank links growth to innovation, service delivery
First Bank of Nigeria Limited has attributed its success story to innovations and reinvention of products and services aimed at satisfying customers’ needs and aspirations.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited has attributed its success story to innovations and reinvention of products and services aimed at satisfying customers’ needs and aspirations.
Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, the Bank’s Managing Director, stated this on the sidelines of the second anniversary of FirstGem, a female focused product in Lagos. “At FirstBank, our purpose is to put our customers and stakeholders at the heart of our business. For over 124 years of our existence, we have focused on providing excellent financial services to meet the needs of our esteemed customers. We continue to improve on our products and also create new ones that suit their specific financial needs. The reason why we have been successful is our ability to invent and reinvent ourselves. You can only be successful like that when you put your customer at the centre piece of all your actions. That is the secret of our success.
“In designing our FirstGem product, we are very clear on the space we want to occupy,” he said.
Adeduntan further said that FirstGem had been designed on the path of what was discovered two, three years ago to fill the gap in ensuring women achieve active participation in economic development. He noted that FirstGem is not just a product but a complete lifestyle support designed solely for women.
Also speaking, Dr. Doyin Salami, Lagos Business School, urged investors in the Nigerian stock market not to panic about the forthcoming elections, assuring them the market would rebound after the general elections. Salami said that Nigerians should stop dwelling on uncertainties surrounding 2019 elections, noting that election would come and go.
Speaking on the topic “New frontiers for businesses in 2019”: Salami said that Nigerians should tap into sectors with huge activities instead of dwelling on 2019 elections.
“Election is coming and it comes with uncertainties, there are over a 150 million Nigerians and I’m sure that their lives will continue after the election.
“I’m optimistic of where we are, election will come and go and we hope we don’t fight aftermath of the election. Whoever wins will manage the economy,”
Salami said.
He further opined that the stock market which had gone down presently by about 15 percent would rebound after the elections. Salami added that Treasury Bills would offer higher returns next year, noting that people with risk averse could invest in it. Salami said that Nigerians should look inwards and tap into opportunities provided by the fast moving sectors with huge activities. According to him, the sectors are agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications and ICT, healthcare and oil and gas.
Salami said that experience and knowledge would help entrepreneurs to identity new frontiers for business in 2019. He noted that many businesses collapsed because of lack of understanding and wrong pricing.
Also speaking, Ms Arunma Oteh, World Bank Vice President and Treasurer, identified Nigeria’s greatest challenge as extreme poverty, inequality, climate change, anti globalisation and high population, among others.
Oteh said that Nigeria would not achieve sustainable growth without tackling these challenges with strong sense of urgency. She said that one way to tackle these problems was to broaden economic participation by closing the gender gap.
Oteh said that globally, countries were losing $160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men. She said that “this amounts to an average of $23,620 for each person in the 141 countries studied by the World Bank Group”. Oteh noted that women were important for economic development and were the economic power house for society today.
This article originally appeared on NAN, written by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
Companies
COVID-19, VAT, FX scarcity adversely impacted our operations in 2020 – Nigerian Breweries boss says
NB Plc’s operations in 2020 were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, VAT increase and FX devaluation.
The management of Nigeria’s leading brewer, Nigerian Breweries Plc has revealed that its operations in 2020 were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, VAT increase, FX devaluation and scarcity of foreign exchange.
This statement was made by the Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries, Mr Jordi Borrut Bel, at the company’s pre-AGM media briefing for the financial year-end 2020, which held in Lagos this week.
He noted that the increase in the brewer’s cost in 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted the company’s operations, as well as the increase in VAT, devaluation and FX scarcity which has put pressure on input cost.
READ: Alcoholic beverage makers on NSE lose a total N27.7 billion in a single day
The Nigerian Breweries boss explained further that the increase in cost could not be fully attributed to currency devaluation and foreign exchange scarcity.
He explained that the increase in costs of goods sold, as reported in its audited financial results, could also be linked to the increase in the volume of goods sold, as the company’s sales volume in 2020 increased by almost the same percentage as the cost of goods sold.
To deal with this challenge going forward, he revealed that the company is focused on the supply chain, and will continue to seek out ways to mitigate any of the price increases coming from FX scarcity.
READ: Brewery sector: A quarter to forget
The company’s profitability in question?
An analysis of the company’s result revealed that despite the 4.3% increase in net revenue from N323.00 billion recorded in 2019, to a total of N337.01 billion in 2020, the company’s profit declined significantly by 53.3% to N7.53 billion.
Speaking on this, Jordi Borrut in his statement at the press briefing noted that the brewer’s business performance in 2020 was quite impressive especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession. Despite these challenges, the company maintained a strong and healthy balance sheet.
“There was a slight reduction in profitability but compared to the previous year, the business witnessed an improved growth in revenue. The significance of this is that the business became more stable and healthier,” he said.
READ: Nigeria’s triangular beer war on the rise with the arrival of Budweiser
What you should know
- Nigerian breweries, being the largest brewer in the country, maintained its stance in terms of generating profits year-on-year. The company emerged as the only brewer to record a profit of N7.37 billion from its operations in 2020, 54.3% lower than 2019 figures (N16.1 billion).
- From this, the leading brewer was able to pay shareholders a total dividend of N7.5 billion, translating to a dividend of 94 kobos per share – a dividend payout in which exceeds 100%.
- While Guinness and International Breweries made a loss of N12.6 billion and N24.9 billion respectively, this reality impacted their ability to pay their shareholders dividends in 2020.
Business News
Highest paid Nigerian bank MD/CEOs of 2020
Bank MD/CEOs in Nigeria earned a combined N1.5 billion in salaries in 2020.
The banking sector, especially commercial banks, is one of the most profitable sectors of the Nigerian Economy churning out profits of close to a trillion in 2020 alone. They are also one of the highest employers of labours in the country employing over 93,000 Nigerians.
Sitting at the helm of affairs is the Chief Executive/Managing Director, the highest-ranking executive in the organization saddled with the responsibility of making the best corporate decisions, oversight of the execution of the organisation’s corporate strategies and most importantly increasing the shareholders’ return. The buck basically stops on their table.
Thus, these enormous responsibilities also come with a considerable executive compensation for their service making them ostensibly the highest-ranking staff of the bank.
READ: Jim Ovia: From a clerk to founder of Nigeria’s most profitable bank
In typical Nairametrics fashion, we bring to you a list of the highest-ranking bank CEOs for 2020 based on their executive compensation (exec comps). The bank MD/CEOs under our review earned over N1.5 billion in salaries in 2020.
The data was sourced from the published audited accounts of the bank and verified by Nairametrics Research.
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