The National Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), has announced a five-year transformation plan that would help optimise its resources for sustainable growth and increased shareholders’ value.Under the plan, NAHCO said it will invest heavily on capacity building for its people, technology and automation as well as facility upgrade.
The Group Managing Director, NAHCO, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, while speaking at the ‘Closing of Gong’ ceremony at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), in Lagos, Wednesday, said the management is poised to reposition the company, and align operations with international best practice.
According to her, NAHCO has already put measures in place to mitigate possible operational challenges.“Our top priority is our customers, because when we get everything right for our customers, deliver the right type of services, then you get the right type of income that can trickle down to profit. And it is from the profit that we can pay the right kind of dividend, and then it is from being able to drive that kind of service that we can create a company that would be an enviable place to work.”
She continued: “We started last year in investing in equipment, and we intend to do more so that we do not wait to run out of equipment. We are also refreshing our facilities; we do not wait till everything falls apart before we put them together. “Most importantly, we are also investing in our people, we are doing a lot of transformation, we are turning into a knowledge organisation, and automation is the way to go. We are putting in place systems that will make operations easy for our people,” she said.
NAHCO, which provides aircraft, passenger, and cargo handling and other related services, weathered the storm to end 2017 with higher profit after tax (PAT).
Specifically, the company recorded a turnover of N7.926 billion in 2017, compared with N7.956 billion in 2016. Finance cost was reduced from N545 million in 2016 to N213 million in 2017, while Profit After Tax stood at N776 million in 2017 from N581 million in 2016. The bottom-line showed an increase of 34 per cent. Earnings per share improved from 36 kobo to 48 kobo.
Based on the performance, the board of directors has recommended a dividend payment of 25 kobo, above the 22 kobo paid the previous year.The company also recorded significant growth in PAT for the first quarter (Q1) ended March 31, 2018. According to the results released by the NSE, NAHCo reported a turnover of N2.188 billion in Q1 of 2018, up from N1.786 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.
