Also at the Group’s AGM recently, attended by the Secretaries to the State Governments’ of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States, on behalf of the owner states, shareholders were informed that despite the harsh conditions under which the company operated, particularly the effect of the recession and the knock-on effects of foreign exchange controls introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2015 as a results of economic downturn, the Group’s revenue grew by 11.3 per cent while profit grew by 32 per cent compared to the 2015 financial year.
These were good news and something to be cheerful about for the company, its shareholders and indeed, well-meaning Yoruba sons and daughters, whose common heritage Odu’a is. Though it is clear that our financial performance is still a far cry from the set targets in the five year Strategic Plan approved in 2016, judging by the outlook of threats and challenges facing similar conglomerates like Odu’a Investment Company in other parts of the economy, we have managed to hold our heads. Globally, at the continent level and nationally, we all continue to witness the rapidly changing business dynamics of this century such that all over the world, a good number of legacy companies that failed to adapt to changing times have disappeared, while the landscape is now dominated by technology-driven companies that barely existed two decades ago. Odu’a, though a 41-year-old company, is not immune to this phenomenon, therefore, it has been doing everything to show that it is determined to surmount that challenge and we can be boldly say that the company is critically poised to overcome the current tide.
As Board and Management of the company, one can give the assurance to shareholders and stakeholders that we aware of the paradox of challenges and opportunities of the current clime and are determined to reposition the company with game-changing initiatives and partnerships. Already, the process of rebuilding an innovative and virile workforce for the organisation so as to take the company to the enviable position of the economic engine of the South-West (formerly Western Region) as envisioned by our founding fathers, has begun. And in keeping with the promise, the Board and Management recently recruited two competent resource persons at the General Manager level to head its Treasury/Investment and Real Estate Departments, with the objective of leveraging and unlocking value from its asset base. The company had also promoted several of its workers, including those at the management cadre, to boost the morale of its present workforce.
Apart from the morale-boosting initiatives in the human resource space, the company had also embarked on several new initiatives that would see it actively participating in the broader and strategic sectors of the economy. As a private sector player, Odu’a has begun a process of actively extending the group’s unique services to the Public Sector and Multilateral Agencies so as to significantly grow its revenue base. And this is beside its current effort, which has the approval of its shareholders to attract majority equity partnership from financially and technically credible investors in the company’s flagship Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja and Western Hotels such as Premier and Lafia Hotels, Ibadan. This exercise is being handled by one of the big four global consulting firms in Nigeria as a demonstration of the company’s commitment to excellence and the transformation of its hospitality business to conform with existing global standards of quality and service.
With those initiatives in the company’s current business, along with many more that are in the pipeline in Agriculture and Agro-Allied, Manufacturing, Transport Network, Telecoms & ICT, Power and Electricity and other sectors that are anchored on partnership with capable local and foreign investors, there will be a significantly boost to the group’s revenue. The initiatives are also expected to reposition Odu’a as a true catalyst for the economic development of the South-West geopolitical, a critical mission about which the company is highly motivated. It is also of note that with the support of the six owner states, which have mandated Odu’a to be their investment vehicle to deliver social and economic impacts on all facets of the regional economy, the task ahead has become more imperative and the company has become open and welcome to capable entities for the purpose of collaborating and partnering on the journey of transformation across the entire six South-West States of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos.
- Chief Ojo is the chairman, Odu’a Group.
and then