CSCS shareholders endorse N3.5b dividend for 2017, task management on improved performance

Shareholders of the Central Securities Clearing System on Monday endorsed N3.5 billion total dividend recommended by the board for the financial year ended December 31 2017.
The shareholders at the company’s 24th Annual General Meeting in Lagos approved the payment of N3.5 billion, which translated to 70k per share.
Speaking at the meeting, Timothy Adesiyan, immediate past President, Noble Shareholders Association, lauded the company for the dividend declared and performance posted in 2017 financial year.
Adesiyan called on the company to strengthen their efforts in order to consolidate on the performance achieved during the period under review.
Reviewing the company’s performance, Oscar Onyema, CSCS Chairman, said that the gross earnings rose by 41 per cent to N8.7 billion from N6.2 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2016.
Onyema said that profit before tax rose to N5.7 billion from N3.7 billion in 2016, while profit after tax increased to N4.9 billion from N3.5 billion recorded in the previous year.
Onyema assured shareholders that the firm would remain focused on commitment to service excellent and sustainable business practice.
He said: “Based on our continued commitment on excellence, we are one of the highest rated CSDs in Africa with an ‘A’, which is a low overall risk rating, an improvement from the ‘A-’ rating in 2016 from Thomas Murray, the world renowned CSD rating agency.
“Our target for 2018 is to improve our rating further by achieving an A+ rating.”
The new rate, according to the chairman will support the firm’s desire to become the preferred investment hub in Africa.
Onyema said that it would also highlight the business process improvement as well as the resilience of the firm’s CSD in terms of financial stability and safety of assets in its custody.
The chairman said that the company had unveiled five strategic business plan for 2018-2020 anchored on process optimisation, customer satisfaction, technology improvement to deliver corporate goals, partnership through strategic alliances across business and stakeholders and revenue growth.

Oscar said that the management had commenced initiatives to deliver on some of the key pillars.
He told the shareholders that the company had reworked its dividend policy for a more robust payout.
Onyema said that the new proposal for 2017 was a reflection of the new dividend policy.
Haruna Jalo-Waziri, the company’s Managing Director, said that the firm had further developed 51 initiatives from its five pillars in order to reposition the company for optimal service delivery.
Jalo-Waziri said: “As the world embraces the fourth industrial revolution, we are focused on guiding the evolution around our business space to ensure that we seize the opportunities it presents.
“To this end, we are building enterprise architecture to ensure proper analysis, planning and implementation for the successful development and execution of our strategy.”