By Martin Ekpeke
CWG Plc has recorded a 13.7 percent loss in its 2017 financial year. A loss the company touted as largest system Integration Company in Nigeria explained, was occasioned by unfavorable economic conditions in its operating environment.
Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, CWG’s Chairman, Mr Philip Obioha noted that despite the steps the company had taken to steer it away from its traditional business which is heavily dependent on foreign exchange, the effects of earlier transactions impacted the company’s performance in the 2017 accounting period. According to him, a culmination of the foreign exchange losses, inventory write-offs and a write-down on the company’s goodwill led to the loss.
On steps being taken to reposition the company and achieve better results in the next financial year, Obioha said: “The company, albeit slowly, has continued to make progress in launching its platform and subscription service across the five vertical sectors of the business”.
He added that the company had also signed new platforms contracts with some partners, some of which, according to the chairman, have started generating monthly revenue while others are forecasted to start generating revenue by Q3 2018. “We also saw the significant adoption of some of our services, especially in the mobile financial and vending platforms. We have partnered with some major players in the financial and telecommunication sectors to provide unique offerings to their end customers on a revenue share agreements. Worthy of note is our BillsNPay platform which has been reengineered to also be a vending platform. Today, you can visit www.billsnpay.com to buy your airtime and pay your utility bills at discounted rates,” he said.
Obioha also disclosed that CWG’s Smart Metering platform has gained significant market share through strategic engagements with Realtors, Power Distribution Companies and Government.
With high expectations that the country’s economic recovery would gain momentum this year, the CWG’s Chairman said the company is positioning to seize the opportunities created by a more robust business environment and to consolidate the scaling out of the platform subscription businesses. To that end, he said the board has restructured the organization and promoted three of its senior staff to Vice President Positions within the company, each responsible for the services, corporate and Sales/product development divisions.
“The strategic focus in the year 2018 would be to scale out the existing platforms rather than developing new ones. The existing being, ATM as a Service, BillsNPay, IGR Platforms, Mobile Banking Services, Financial Services Payment Security Solution and our ERP solution for SMEs. We have also expanded the scope of the services available on some of our platforms like the BillsNPay which is now capable of providing airtime vending services,” he added.