By MICHAEL EBOH

NCR Nigeria Plc has announced its readiness to diversify its operations, extending its services to the telecommunication and airline sectors and the general commercial market place.

Speaking during its 59th annual general meeting, in Lagos, Mr. Stelios Fragkos, Director of the company, said that the company is repositioning its activities to tap into the opportunities inherent in these sectors.

The company, he explained, intends to grow its revenue base and bottom lines in the years ahead with income from its diversification into the telecommunication, airline and commercial sectors, adding that it plans to deploy its information and communication technology infrastructure in transactions in these sectors.

He further stated that as parts of its strategic growth plan, the company has put in place machineries to increase its installed capacity, train its staff to undertake the maintenance of its Automated Teller Machines, ATM and that of its competitors and through the deployment of intelligent cash deposits ATMs among others.

Meanwhile, shareholders of the company approved the decision of the Board of Directors to pay a dividend of N3 per share for its 2010 financial year.

The company, in the statement of account for its 2010 financial year ended, December 31, 2010, had declared a dividend of N324 million, representing a dividend per share of N3.

This was in spite of a decline in its turnover for the period under review. Its turnover dipped by 52 per cent to N2.041 billion from N4.27 billion recorded in its 2009 financial year.

The company recorded an operating profit of N1.1 billion from N1.236 billion recorded in 2009, a profit before tax of N1.06 billion compared to N1.14 billion in 2009 and a profit after tax of N721.59 million compared to N944.86 million in 2009.

Speaking on the performance of the company, Otunba Adekunle Ojora, Chairman, NCR, commended the parent company, NCR Corporation, for their contribution towards the growth of the company; especially in the N146 million waiver granted NCR Nigeria.

He said that its service annuity increased by 15.46 per cent due to strategic decisions taken by the company and the maintenance of ATMs across the country.

He said, “We are pleased to noted that as a result of strategic decisions taken in the past, our service annuity has increased by 15.46 per cent due to the commencement of maintenance on increasing number of ATMs as a result of the expiration of the warranty period.”

He continued further, “We however pursued our strategic focus on advance functionality ATMs, software and values add solutions with significant wins in 2010. To this end, we successfully completed the pilot of biometric ATM (fingerprint authentication) with a major financial institution in Nigeria.