ICYMI: Strategic plans, restructuring, appointments and everything else that happened in corporate Nigeria last week

Welcome to Nairametrics’ Corporate News Roundup for the week ended January 21, 2023. This is a summary of the major company news stories from the past week, brought to you courtesy of Quidax. 

Nigerian companies have been announcing their strategic growth plans for the New Year. While Access Holdings is looking to raise capital to fund its new strategy, Chams HoldCo got a new licence even as Dangote Cement appointed a new CEO to lead the company. These and more in today’s roundup. Let’s begin.

Access Bank’s strategy: Last week, Access Holdings announced a 5-year growth strategy which it said would, among other targets, see customer acquisition for its retail business hitting 100 million by 2027.  

The banking group also disclosed that it would target to establish a presence in at least 26 countries across the globe, including some OECD countries and other major financial hubs like Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing, etc. Of course, the goal of the expansion is to support intra-Africa trade and by doing so, make a profit for shareholders. 

Financing the plan: Meanwhile, to support its planned expansion as contained in the 5-year strategic plan, Access Holdings said it would need to raise capital.  

Without disclosing too many details about the capital plan, the banking explained that it would need to work with its development finance institutions (DFIs) partners and international financial markets to raise senior debt and quasi-equity. 

MTN’s incentive shares: MTN Nigeria announced that it is set to allot incentive shares to some shareholders who participated in its last public offer of 575 million ordinary shares. This is in fulfilment of the telco’s promise to give one ordinary share for every 20 ordinary shares bought by shareholders.  

To qualify for the incentive shares, shareholders’ names must appear in the register of members as of the qualification date which is 31st January 2023. 

Earnings projection: Jaiz Bank Plc projected N9.780 billion in gross earnings and N1.263 in profit after tax for the first quarter of 2023. 

Recall that the non-interest banking institution had reported a 20% jump in profit to N925 million in Q3 2022. 

New licence for Chams: Chams HoldCo Plc announced that it has received a payment service holding company licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Nairametrics reported that the company obtained the licence earlier this month. In addition to the licence, Chams HoldCo also renewed its switching and mobile money operators (MMO) licenses for its subsidiaries. 

The company’s Managing Director Mayowa Olaniyan explained that with the new licence, Chams HoldCo would be able to “establish a business institution that will further increase the pivotal role of the company in the payment industry across Africa and ensure global relevance”. 

Wakanow’s restructuring: Leading travel agency, Wakanow Limited, announced that it has restructured into a group entity in line with its next growth phase.  

As part of the restructuring, the company’s board of directors appointed Mr Adebayo Adedeji as the Group CEO and even as Mrs Adenike Macaulay was appointed as CEO of Wakanow Nigeria. Their appointments took effect this January. 

Funding Nigerian startups: Nairametrics reported that Nigerian tech startups – PaddyCover, Farmz2U, and Eight Medical – secured $200,000 each from Catalyst Fund, a pre-seed venture capital and accelerator. 

The funding was part of Catalyst Fund’s $2 million investment into 10 startups building solutions to improve the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities in Africa.  

NGX partners IFC: Nigerian Exchange Limited announced that it has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to investigate gender-based violence and harassment in corporate Nigeria. 

A statement seen by Nairametrics explained that the study would be conducted as part of the Nigeria2Equal initiative, which aims to address gender-based violence in the private sector. The study would provide evidence-based recommendations that would help to prevent future gender-based violence. 

 New CEO for DanCem: Dangote Cement Plc announced the appointment of Arvind Pathak as Group Managing Director, effective from March 1, 2023. 

According to a statement seen by Nairametrics, Pathak’s appointment follows the impending retirement of the company’s current Group CEO Michel Puchercos who would officially step down on February 28, 2023. 

PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc also announced the appointment of Brian Egan as an interim Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of the Company, effective January 1st, 2023.  

A corporate disclosure seen by Nairametrics explained that the appointment follows the resignation of the former Chief Finance Officer Zubair Momoniat on 31 December 2022.