Wemabod shareholders approve N63.2m dividend payout
By Philemon Adedeji
The Shareholders of Wemabod Limited have approved N63,200,000 million dividend payout translating to N24.29 per share. The approval was given at 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place in Lagos at the weekend.
The outgoing Chairman of Wemabod Limited, Mr Oluseyi Oduntan commented that, the impact of the pandemic has been felt in performance of the real estate sector.
He said International Monetary Fund (IMF), full year GDP growth in Nigeria increased to 3.40 per cent in 2021 from negative growth rate of -1.92 per cent in 2020.
According to him, “The impact of the pandemic on the global real estate performance was especially felt in the commercial real estate. The need for remote working and increase in energy cost were the key drivers responsible for the decline in commercial real estate.
“The pandemic has led to an acceleration of some of the existing trends in real estate, such as reduction in retail footprints as more people globally resorted to online shopping, leading to a phenomenal growth in e-commerce.
“Other existing trend such as the appeal of living in big cities were halted because it became grundnorm for people to work from home.
“According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), full year GDP growth in Nigeria increased to 3.40 per cent in 2021 from negative growth rate of -1.92 per cent in 2020. That clearly shows an upward trend and gradual recovery from the pandemic impact of 2020.
“Despite the enormity of the challenges of 2021, Our company recorded a profit before tax of N632,000,000 (six hundred and thirty two million naira) as against loss of N247,000,000.00 (two hundred and forty seven million naira) recorded in year 2020 which was due to implementation of FIRS 9 on the Company’s receivables.
“The profit making trend will continue in the current year and beyond evidenced by the positive approach embarked upon by the Board and Management in the current year.
“In view of the above performance we hereby propose dividend payment of N63,200,000.00 to our shareholder being N24.29 dividend per share Board Changes.
“My colleagues on the Board are experienced business leaders who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from diverse sectors, which support the discussions on the strategic operational and sustainability issues affecting the Company today and will continue to do so in the future.
“There were changes in the composition of the Board during 2021. The most significant change was the resignation of Bashorun Ayobami Afolabi and appointment of Mr. Emmanuel Ibukun Efuntayo on 1st May, 2021,” he said.
Speaking on the economy challenges, “We urge that management should begin to think out way of proving solution to all challenges.
“The major among the challenges we faced today that is literarily affecting our business and your business has to do with the state of economy itself. The voice we are recording is parental properties, second to know that we have never witnessed in the company, and the voice that are coming actually came at the back of major challenges that we face in the micro-economic situation of the company purchasing power of our tenant has been drastically eroded and some of them are literarily just checking out the premises because it cannot afford to be rent to recover service charge has been a major challenges.”
However, the outgoing Chairman of Wemabod, Otunba Oluseyi Oduntan nominated Mr. Efuntayo Ibukun Emmanuel to take place as a new Chairman.
“To me, Wemabod Limited is a big brand. We can use other people’s money to develop our portfolio because people want to associate with Wemabod. We also need to do things together to move this vision forward, after my two years tenure someone else will take over.
“The owner of the company has given us vision. We need the capacity to get in there, we focus more on capacity, the environment is so dynamic, we need to adapt with what we are doing to be able to satisfy our shareholders.”
