FRIDAY, 23 JULY 2010 00:00 BY TUNDE ESO 

 

An automobile registration company, Courteville investment Plc has declared a total dividend of N18.4 million at four kobo per share to its shareholders.The Chairman of Courteville Group, Chief Micheal Ade Ojo, who was represented by the Vice Chairman Group Capt. M.O. Salami (Rtd) at the company fifth yearly general meeting held in Lagos recently, said that not withstanding the unprecedented turbulent business climate created by the global economic meltdown during the year under review, “ the company recorded a turnover of N776.8million in year 2009, which represents an increase of 51 per cent over N515.8million achieved in 2008. The pre-tax profit for the year amounted to N271.5million while profit after tax is N181.4million.”

 

According to the chairman, “the Nigeria economy like others has been adversely impacted by the global financial and economic crisis which started since 2008. As the crisis deepened, the government with a view to stabilizing the economy initiated key policy changes.“The global turndown brought about falling oil prices leading to significant reduction in the country’s foreign currency earning and with the resultant cut in government revenue. This has propelled all the tiers of government in the country to focus on aggressively growing their internally generated revenue (IGR) to cover the gap created by revenue from the federation account.

 

“This, I believe has created opportunities for our company to market our services to several other state governments other than the 12 currently deploying our flagship product – AutoReg- in the area of their road taxes and we have continued to grow the coverage of our flagship product AutoReg as the scheme is presently assisting 12 state governments in driving their internally generated revenue most especially in the area of road taxes.

 

“Armed with the approval at the last shareholders’ meeting, steps were taken to expand the benefit of this scheme to other African countries. Significant progress have been achieved in this regard, this will manifest in not too distance a future.”At the event Mr. Wale Sonaike, Executive Director, Business Development and Strategy of the company said had expanded beyond Nigeria business wise, providing services to stakeholders.

 

Source:Guardian