By WILLIAM JIMOH

Chams Plc, a company listed on the Information Technology of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has attributed its inability to declare dividend over the last six years to restructuring and reformation projects it embarked upon during the period.

Sir Ademola Aladekomo, Managing Director, Chams plc, disclosed this while addressing stockbrokers at the company’s Facts behind the Figures, where he noted that with re-invigorated management of the company, they are restructured, repositioned and ready to deliver outstanding result to all its stakeholders.

According to Aladekomo, Chams suffered greatly from the economic meltdown that rocked the global capital market during 2008/2009 financial years, but recovered fully in 2011.
He explained that Chams returned to profitably in 2012 and 2013 though the profit was retained for better stability, the reason why they have not declared dividend.

“We were unable to roll out in 2009 and 2010 because of the National ID which we then needed about 8 billion and no bank was ready to give us money since they are also trying to survive,” he said.

“We have learned from our past experience that we needed to build our own cash and that is what we have been doing since we returned to profitability in 2012. There is no reason why we should not attain our set goals; we already have all the strategies, board, and the capital. We need to sustain the infrastructure we have built, which is capable of sustaining us for the next seven years, an indication that 2014 is going to be a very good year for us.

“We will start to pay dividend from 2016; this is due to our adherent to the IFRS requirement. It is going to be prudent of us to declare dividend in 2013, but this we could not do because we still have our debt indications in red. But the board will look at what can be done on the matter to see if we can pay dividend in 2014,” Aladekomo noted.

Speaking further he said, “Chams is determined to dominate the identity market in Nigeria, increase our market share to at least 60 percent by 2015, grow our revenue to N1 trillion in five to seven years, develop new product lines, introduce a unified system in our core business, and exploit the biometric payment and transaction space among other intents.

“We want to ensure that we are through with all the projects we have at hand for the National Identity Management Commission on the national identification project. As soon as we complete our on-going restructuring across the group, we will dedicate our energy towards delivering value for all stakeholders,” he added.

He also noted that the company is focusing on its main business, which is provision of infrastructure for identity management, e-payment and electronic transaction for the public and private sector.