AshakaCem Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa Plc has projected a positive market growth for 2017 going by what it described as “early approval” of Federal Government budget as well as the24% increase in allocation for capital expenditure.
MD, Rabiu Umar said at its 42nd AGM in Abuja that this would boost spending on infrastructure and the revenues of cement manufacturers.
“We are well positioned to take advantage of this as the Star of the North,” he said.
The company announced N2 billion as profit for 2016 after tax deduction, against the N2.7 billion it posted in 2015, a 25.93% decline.
Acting Chairman, Edith Onwuchekwa, said that the devaluation of the naira and its consequent impact on operating costs led to the 17% decline in profit before tax.
She said the company was able to save N2.6 billion by leveraging with Lafarge Africa PLC to reduce commercial and information technology activities.
She added that despite the challenging economic environment in 2016, the company maintained optimal operations as production was on schedule with 648,585 metric tonnes cement dispatches, which was 6.5% higher than the 609,000 metric tonnes dispatched in 2015.
Onwuchekwa said: “2016 was a difficult and challenging year, but we had serious commitment from management and staff and also from stakeholders. You could see that during my statement, I appreciated the management and stakeholders because they contributed to help us wade through the storm in 2016 and we were able to declare profitability.
She said the company unanimously endorsed a dividend payment of N336 million at 15 kobo on every ordinary share in issue for the period 2016 financial year to its shareholders.
