Its goal is to protect and increase the nation’s non-oil revenue generation in order to support fiscal sustainability and the provision of high-quality public services.
The international lender said that Nigeria had turned the corner on reforms that would need all the right alliances and support to achieve the long-term goal of a prosperous economy where jobs are created and human development is significantly improved in a feature story titled “Turning The Corner: Nigeria’s Ongoing Path of Economic Reforms” that was posted on its website on Friday.
The bank further stated that the assistance might act as a model for the area, demonstrating how macro-fiscal and governance changes, when combined with ongoing expenditures in public goods, can boost economic growth and enhance the quality of life for inhabitants.
TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc’s shareholders have authorised a dividend of N8.49 billion, or N25 per share, for the 2023 fiscal year.
The clearance was granted at the company’s 46th Annual General Meeting, which took place in Lagos on Friday.
The board recommended a dividend of N25 per share in 2023, the same as N25 per unit the year before, according to the company’s annual report.
The dividend was supposed to be paid on Monday, but after Sunny Nwosu, the chairman emeritus of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, argued for its immediate payment, Jean-Philipe Torres, the chairman of the board of directors, declared that it would instead be paid on Friday following the AGM.
Speaking on the floor of the AGM, Torres, said, that the economic headwinds had impacted the company’s profitability in 2023, saying, “You know the situation of the country, even better than me. It was very complicated. We tried to give the highest dividend as much as possible. The revenue increased by 32 per cent, which is good but the cost of goods also increased more or less by the same percentage. Unfortunately, we suffered last year a significant exchange loss of more than N11bn and this is we couldn’t maintain this year, the level of profit of the previous year. Plus, inflation was at almost 30 per cent last year.”
Torres also disclosed that the company had brought on a renewable energy specialist to help it investigate opportunities in the industry and expand its range of products.
He said, “The company hired a renewable explorer. He’s visiting different sites to see how to bring up new projects with new energy. His job description is to assess all the possibilities we have, all the possible projects we can find in renewable energy in order to change the energy mix of the company.”
Speaking on the business’s success in 2023, Torres stated that because of currency issues, the company was dependent on NNPC Limited for its supplies and didn’t import PMS.
“In 2023, due to unavailability of foreign exchange, TotalEnergies like other marketers did not import PMS NNPC maintained the role of sole importer of PMS and we and other marketers purchased PMS and AGO from NNPC. During the year, there were several outages of PMS which slowed activities in our stations across the country. AGO & Jet A1 remain fully deregulated but access to foreign exchange by marketers continues to be a challenge, inhibiting imports. The price of AGO opened the year at N850/L and closed as high as N1,200 per litre,” he said.
A few shareholders expressed their happiness with the final payout and urged the management to take further action to increase the company’s profitability.
Revenue for TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria increased to N635.95 billion in the reviewed year from N482.47 billion. Its earnings after taxes, however, decreased by 20% from N16.12 billion in 2022 to N12.91 billion.
TotalEnergies Marketing Service, the parent company with its headquarters located in France, owns 61.72 percent of the shares in the Nigerian company, with other owners holding the remaining 38.28 percent.
