AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
The management of the University Press Plc. has attributed the fortune of businesses in recent times to stringent government policies and the challenging global economy.
This observation was made by the company at its 2023 Annual General Meeting held at Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Mobil Ring Road, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday.
Samuel Kolawole, Managing Director of UPPlc., said however that in anticipation of this, the publishing company made earlier preparations to respond to the challenges to be able to absorb the pressure and make profit.
Kolawole said, “In my statement to shareholders at the 2022 Annual General Meeting of our company, I acknowledged the fact that the year under review (2022/2023 financial year) would witness elections into various political positions at the national and state levels.
“We also envisaged that these elections would pose certain challenges to the performance of the economy as more focus would be on politics rather than governance. We, therefore, prepared to respond to these challenges based on what was foreseeable in order to ensure that the Company recorded good performance.”
He lamented that in the year under review, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government made decisions that took a negative toll on the business environment.
“The year witnessed the redesigning of our currency and the implementation of a cashless policy by the CBN. The resultant effect of the elections, with the unexpected redesign of the naira and the implementation of a cashless policy by the CBN posed greater challenges to the Nigerian economy than was envisaged.
“These policies placed a lot of hardship on economic activities in most sectors of the Nigerian economy. The education sector in which we operate was not an exception. We responded to the developments as they unfolded in order to manage the situation. Despite the efforts, the performance of the company was still negatively impacted, especially in the last quarter of the financial year of the Company,” he said.
He disclosed that the company performed below expectations in the 2022/2023 financial year, alleging that the new government took far- reaching decisions such as deregulation of foreign exchange through the floating of the naira and the removal of petroleum subsidies which affected businesses.
He said, “These decisions have also posed challenges to the operating environment in view of the attendant increase in fuel prices and the serious dip in the value of the naira, leading to increase in the cost of production as well as posed a challenge to the purchasing power of Nigerians. We are very hopeful that we will successfully respond to the challenges.”
Kolawole, indicating the company’s decision to launch an E-learning platform, assured shareholders that “We see a good future for the Company even in the midst of all the challenges. We intend to innovate, manage our cost and be lean and efficient in the running of the company to ensure that we are able to improve our performance. We will continue to improve our reach across the country, focusing on reaching more customers and ensuring that we improve our market share.”
The Chairman, UPPlc., Mr Obafunso Ogunkeye, corroborated the fact that the year in review was challenging for the company in response to the national and the global realities.
“The country witnessed high levels of inflation occasioned by Russia Ukraine war as well as tensions between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. All these factors contributed to disrupting global supply chains,” he said.
He explained that in a bid to counter inflation, central banks across some countries increased interest rates, adding that “Africa witnessed slow economic growth, dropping from 4.1per cent in 2021 to 3.6per cent in 2022. Africa’s economic activity is projected to decline further in 2023 due to ever-rising inflation rates and high fiscal debt levels.
“Nigeria experienced foreign exchange pressures, high levels of fiscal debt, weak governance and the country’s dependency on oil as its main foreign exchange earner offered little succour. Our annual Gross Domestic Product growth rate fell from 3.40per cent in 2021 to 3.10per cent in 2022 as noted by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“In response, CBN adjusted the official exchange rate from N415 in January 2022 to N460 in March 2023, an 11per cent depreciation in the value of the Naira against the US Dollar. The challenges of sourcing foreign exchange greatly affected our business as we were unable to produce the quantities we would have wished to produce through our foreign printers. It equally hindered our efforts at printing locally owing to the very high cost of paper.”
In their responses, shareholders lauded the management of the company and urged them to expand the sphere of influence nationally in a bid to up its profit scale.
The Company made a total of N142.3 million profit after tax and the Board recommended 10 kobo dividend per share in the year under review.
