Nwosu: Africa Prudential Poised to Take Advantage of New Market Opportunities

Kayode Tokede

The Managing Director/CEO, Africa Prudential Plc, Mrs. Catherine Nwosu, yesterday revealed that the only listed registrar company on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) is poised to take advantage of new market opportunities, grow its revenue and satisfy customers.

Speaking virtual during the company’s “investors relations call” on half year (H1) ended June 2024 unaudited result and accounts, Nwosu said the company recently completed a strategic retreat and discovered mind blowing opportunities within Nigeria and outside the shores of the country, assuring shareholders that the management would present itself to tap from these opportunities.

Africa Prudential had declared N2.03 billion net operating income in H1 2024, about 24 per cent increase from N1.63billion reported in H1 2023, driven by N1.48 billion interest income in H1 2024 from N950.41 million reported in H1 2023.

The growth impacted on bottom-line as profit before tax stood at N1.13 billion in H1 2024, representing an increase of 89 per cent from N597.22 million reported in H1 2023, while profit after tax moved from N415.07 million in H1 2023, increasing about 88 per cent to N779.4 million in H1 2024.

Beyond the surge in interest income from investment, she stated that the company executed 10 transactions within the period under review.

“So, these bring additional income to our business, and we’ll continue to do more to engage more clients, because that is our core business, and that is where the bulk of our revenues will be coming from,” she added.

On business look, she said: “We will maintain our focus on the fixed income market, taking advantage of high interest rates to ensure consistent returns to investors.

“Our investor engagement is very critical to us, so we will continue to leverage on a multi-channel approach to provide best in-class customer experience across all our touch points.

“We will consistently excite our clients by providing proactive, data driven insights for their business growth.

“We will strengthen partnerships with key stakeholders to drive profitability and increase market penetration. Cost optimization is key to our growth, and will continue to drive our cost down, maintaining quality products and services.

“Risk management is also very key to us to drive our core business through leveraging a robust risk management framework.

“We will launch an additional range of new products and innovative services. These offerings are designed to the diverse needs and expectations of our esteemed investors.

“We will continually pursue operational efficiency through process reengineering and automation to enhance operational efficiency, aiming to maximize service delivery, boost our customer satisfaction and improve our revenue generation position.”

On the surge in interest income, the Chief Finance Officer, Africa Prudential, Mr. Taofik Giwa, stated that the company took advantage of the prevailing high interest rates yield in the fixed income market space.

“We did invest more in fixed income instruments such as treasury bills, fixed placements, commercial papers and bonds to actually grow earnings for investment income. With particular focus on asset classes that are not less than 20 per cent interest rate, it reduced not less than 18 per cent across all our portfolio,” he said.

On sustaining the growth throughout the 2024 financial year, he said the company is intentional about its strategy in terms of how it wanted to grow its profit and maintain the good track record.

“We know that we are going to close the 2024 financial year favourably for our investor’s sake. So basically, just juggling our investment strategy, ensuring that we grow our revenue baseline, and I think with that, we are able to edge the forces that are working the ties against us,” he said.