Despite the economic recession, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc was able to raise revenue from N342bn maintaining 11 percent increase.
Similarly, profit before tax ( PBT)rose 49 percent from N7, 724,770 to 11,489,278.
Speaking at its 56th annual general meeting held in Lagos recently, Paul Gbededo, group managing director of Flour mills Nigeria said the crash in global oil prices coupled with the restiveness in the Niger Delta region has impacted very badly on the foreign exchange earning of the country.
“Manufacturers in the country have been badly affected because of the rationing of the foreign exchange into the sector and because of that, many companies have been out of business. For those of us that are still keeping our heads up, it has been a very difficult time and it’s difficult to sustain the supply chain into the business,” Gbededo said.
According to Gbededo, the foreign exchange upsurge is good for the economy as its making us look inwards and grow our local content.
“For flour mills Nigeria and the group, we are strategically focusing more and more on our agro-allied business. We are now strategically looking at how to aggregate local grains because in the group we need about 400,000 metric tonnes of corn, 100,000 metric tonnes of sorghum to use in the group. We are also looking at how we can work with farmers, cooperatives and continue to work with them so we can be able to have a sustainable supply chain”
Timothy Adesina, the president of Nigerians shareholders solidarity association said the company fared very well in 2016 despite the economic downturn.
“The happy thing about Flour mills is that they are going agro-allied in the area of cassava, palm oil, sorghum and all these will boost the economy because importing all these things again will no longer be necessary. The kind of seedling they are using is the type that once you introduce into our agriculture, our agriculture will be highly boosted,” Adesina said.
Commenting on the N1 dividend the company is giving to stakeholders this year which is a drop from the N2.10 they received last year, Adesina said they are not complaining.
“Shareholders have spoken on that and the explanation they gave us is that they need some money to plough back in the agric ventures which they are veering into but considering the fact that they are giving us dividends this year, we are happy because many companies cannot pay workers salaries talk-less of shareholders dividends. The company has embarked on not selling their seedlings but ploughing back so that this will grow in future,” he added.
On areas stakeholders want the company to improve upon, Shola Aboderin of sheila foundation said the company is on the right track.
“Most conglomerates import most of their raw materials. This company is producing some of the raw materials they are using.The government of this country is saying we should diversify into agriculture. If we diversify, some of the products we produce will be used by industries. That’s exactly what this company is doing that’s why i continue to applaud them. The company should continue to progress in the area of agriculture and produce more products for us. At a time, they should get them exported”
CHINWE AGBEZE
