E-Financial
CSCS Grows Dividend per Share by 36.0% to N1.17, as Profit Soars 41.4%
Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, held its 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) where the shareholders approved N1.17 dividend per share payout to all qualifying shareholders who held the shares at the close of business on Monday, 10th day of May 2021.
The AGM was held at the Idera Hall of the Raddison Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos whist observing social distancing protocols and hygiene, as advised by relevant authorities in respect of COVID-19 pre-cautions.
Following the approval of shareholders on the N1.17 dividend per share proposed by the Board, CSCS would be paying a total of N5.85billion to its shareholders, some 36.0% year-on-year growth in return to shareholders, when compared to the N4.3 billion dividend (i.e N0.86 dividend per share) paid in the previous year.
Speaking on the performance of the company, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, noted, “despite the challenges in 2020, CSCS emerged stronger, delivering outstanding growth in top and bottom-lines, and executing far-reaching initiatives that would sustainably strengthen the competitiveness and resilience of the business.”
“Growing profit by over 41% in such a challenging year to deliver 20.3% return on average equity, the Board of Directors is more than ever upbeat on the value accretive prospects of CSCS. More importantly, we are enthusiastic on the progress made thus far in repositioning the business to efficiently play a more active and leading role in deepening the Nigerian capital market.
“With continuous investments in new technologies, talent, and work environment, we expect productivity to grow, as the Board continues to work with the Management to exceed stakeholders’ expectations”, the Chairman of the Board added.
Also commenting on the results, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, said; “These impressive results reflect our enhanced collaboration with different stakeholders and their unflinching support and loyalty to CSCS, as the core infrastructure for the Nigerian capital market.
Hence, my colleagues and I are excited to dedicate this performance to our esteemed participants, regulator and the Board of Directors, whose support kept us stronger through the pandemic.
“We would continue to invest in our collective objective of deepening the capital market and broader financial system, even as we seek new and efficient ways of enhancing our partnerships for mutual prosperity.”
“Having laid a solid foundation over the past three years, we are more than ever optimistic on the prospect of our business, especially as we diversify the business for enhanced resilience against macro and market volatilities.
“The years ahead look challenging, albeit more promising than ever, as we reinforce our commitment to leveraging best-in-class technologies and our continuous investments in human capital in delivering value to all stakeholders”, the Chief Executive Officer added.
The shareholders, most of whom participated through proxies due to the extant COVID-19 precautions, were excited at the performance of the company and unanimously approved the dividend proposal of N1.17 per share, as presented by the Chairman, on behalf of the Board of Directors.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Eric Idiahi, one of the proxy attendees of the Annual General Meeting and Managing Director, Verod Capital LLC; a core shareholder of CSCS Plc, lauded the Management for the unprecedented performance in such a challenging year and reiterated the support of shareholders for the Company, especially as the diversification of the business and culture of innovation should enhance the sustainability of the business and ensure its capacity to deliver superior returns to shareholders over the long term.
Commenting on the conduct of the Annual General Meeting, Mr. Obong Idiong, the Chief Executive Officer of Africa Prudential Plc, the Registrar to CSCS said, “This is a well conducted General Meeting, with due observance of all relevant statutory requirements, including COVID-19 precautions.
“I congratulate the Board and shareholders of CSCS on the impressive performance during the 2020 financial year and more importantly for a successful General Meeting.”
Interestingly, CSCS afforded shareholders who nominated proxies for physical attendance to observe proceedings of the General Meeting via Zoom and YouTube, as the event was streamed live through the session.
CSCS has a diversified shareholder base, including the Nigerian Stock Exchange, or Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, some of the largest Nigerian banks, private equity firms, other institutional investors and retail investors.
The shares are traded over-the-counter through the NASD-OTC, the premier market for trading unquoted securities of public limited companies. As at close of market on Monday, 17 May 2021, the bid/ask quote on the shares of CSCS indicate a price of N17.65 per share, having rallied 17.3% year-to-date, consolidating the strong performance of the share price over the past few year.
Nigerians have more trust in Bitcoin-based systems than in traditional alternatives such as banks and government, a new report by Elastos, an open-source blockchain website, has stated.
According to its inaugural BIT Index (Bitcoin; Innovation & Trust), emerging markets are driving the adoption of Bitcoin, with Nigeria and the UAE leading the charge.
The report revealed that 66 per cent of Nigerian respondents and 35 per cent from Brazil had more confidence in Bitcoin-based systems than alternatives like banks or national governments, compared to just 16 per cent in Germany and 21 per cent in the UK.
The survey also revealed that 20 per cent of Nigerian consumers use Bitcoin to conduct transactions at least once a day, while 67 per cent would have more trust in Bitcoin to protect their life savings than traditional services like banks, local governments, and cash.
According to the platform, the research was compiled from online interviews conducted with 1,407 self-defined ‘tech savvy’ respondents in Brazil, Germany, Nigeria, South Korea, the UAE, the UK, and the US.
It stated that the interviews were completed by a third party, a registered market research company, between March 30 and April 4, 2024.
“When it comes to ensuring the integrity of online transactions, emerging market respondents also revealed their relative confidence in Bitcoin compared to alternatives,” it indicated.
According to the report, 66 per cent of Nigerian respondents and 35 per cent of Brazil have more confidence in Bitcoin-based systems than alternatives, such as banks or national governments, compared to figures of just 16 per cent (Germany) and 21 per cent (UK) who feel the same.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Hargreaves, Elastos’ global head, Business Development & ESG, described the BIT Index’s inaugural findings as indicative of the role the ‘global south’ was playing in the adoption of decentralised currencies such as Bitcoin.
“The BIT Index offers a fascinating and sobering insight into the industry. The fact that over two-thirds of Nigerian consumers and a third of their counterparts from the UAE and Brazil would feel more confident entrusting their life savings to Bitcoin rather than traditional financial instruments speaks volumes about the protagonism these regions are already playing.
“In many instances, the driving factor is the absence of viable, accessible alternatives to, for instance, conduct cross-border transactions or mitigate the impact of inflation,” he said.
According to Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency research firm, Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume grew year-over-year to $56.7bn in 2023.
It stated that the country’s crypto economy continued to grow despite market turmoil in the space.
On the contrary, the government has been taking strong measures to restrict and clamp down on cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms operating in the country.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has awarded the country’s second Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA) license to Unified Payments, Nigeria’s premier financial technology company, following a rigorous and transparent process,
The move is targeted at enforcing existing requirement that all transactions from point-of-sale channels in Nigeria must go through a licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA).
The CBN is enforcing the laws to clamp down on financial crimes and other market misconducts and it aligns with the CBN’s objectives to fully track all electronic transactions in Nigeria, given the propensity of using such transactions to fund insecurity, violent crimes, banditry, kidnapping as well as other vices.
According to one analyst, “By awarding a second PTSA license, the apex bank has proactively responded to industry operators who had expressed serious concerns about channelling all transactions through a single aggregator, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System PLC (NIBBS), as has been the case for some years.
“With the new policy direction, payments service providers would henceforth route all transactions through either of the two licensed Companies.”
Other financial analysts and industry players have commended the Central Bank, affirming that “the move can be a massive step in the right direction. They also commended the open, transparent, and inclusive manner via which the selection process was managed, and the license awarded.
“The selection process, which lasted for months, began with an invitation for qualified organisations within the payment industry to submit an Expression of Interest document, alongside other requisite documentation and additional capital requirement of N1 billion.”
The new management of CBN decided not to give the license out without going through an open process – and for the first time in licensing a payment service provider – the apex bank went through a public bid process outlined in its publication of Friday, January 5, 2024, in different national newspapers. At the end of the process, Unified Payments emerged as the most preferred service provider.
Unified Payment Services Limited, also called Unified Payments or UP, is a shared service provider within Nigeria’s financial technology sector owned by a consortium of Nigerian banks. For over 26 years, the firm has provided payment technology to banks and other industry operators. The first and only non-bank entity that is a principal member and licensed acquirer of all of American Express, Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay and Payattitude. Unified Payments facilitates both local and international transactions.
Formerly known as ValuCard Nigeria Plc, Unified Payments led the way to introduce POS payments in Nigeria under its card scheme known as ValuCard which is the first payment card to be issued in Nigeria. The company later transformed into a scheme-neutral and option-neutral service provider enabling transactions under different schemes.
The company has continued to provide leading payment technologies and services, enabling different operators to leverage its capabilities and licenses, enabling prompt and seamless transactions.
Among the shareholders of Unified Payments are First Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Zenith Bank and Fidelity Bank. Other shareholders are Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank of Nigeria Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Ltd, Polaris Bank Ltd, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Wema Bank Plc.
Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, has expressed support for the ongoing banking recapitalization exercise saying it will empower banks to lend more to the economy.
CIBN President, Dr. Ken Opara stated this yesterday while speaking at the annual lecture of the institute in Lagos, with the theme “Improving Availability of Credit in the Nigerian Real Economy: The Critical Importance of Liquidity.”
Okpara noted that the volume of credit to the real sector activities namely agriculture, manufacturing and services is low compared to their critical role in driving economic growth.
Consequently, he called for more credit to the real sector, saying, “I propose that we consider offering more credit to these key sectors and particularly the agriculture sector. It is for this reason that the Recapitalization exercise is a welcome development.
“The recently announced upward review of the Minimum Capital Requirements of Nigeria by the Central Bank of Nigeria would further empower banks to extend more credit to the economy’s productive sectors.”
To address these factors impeding credit to the real sector, Okpara suggested that, “The government needs to improve further the ease of doing business and infrastructural development, such as power, roads, rail networks, etc.
“Setting up industrial centres where these companies can co-habit and share common infrastructure. Harmonize and reduce the various taxes and levies, including locating them in a single hub.
“Banks need to be deliberate in de-risking these companies via Capacity building programmes, and Advisory services.
Specialised Financial Institutions can be created in addition to the Bank of Industry (BOI), especially credit guarantee agencies and risk-sharing institutions, to further facilitate the deepening of credit as practiced in countries such as China which significantly transformed its economy.
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