Okomu Oil’s Revenue Rises to N14.3bn

• Okomu Oil’s Revenue Rises to N14.3bn
• Devaluation and Cost Cutting Measures Aids Profits

The Okomu Oil Palm Company PLC says it recorded revenue of N14.3bn in 2016, as against N9.7bn recorded in 2015.

The Chairman of Board of Directors, Okomu Oil, Mr Gbenga Oyebode, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja at the 37th Annual General Meeting of the company.

Okomu Oil Palm Company was established in 1976 as a Federal Government pilot project, aimed at boosting palm production in Nigeria.

It is located at Okumu-Udo, Ovia West Local Government Area of Edo.

Oyebode said that the positive result was achieved in 2016, mainly because of the devaluation of the naira and on-going cost cutting measures by the company’s management.

“The past year was conceivably the most difficult time in many years for Nigeria; what with the low crude oil prices, the devaluation of the naira, and on-going paucity of foreign exchange, inflation which together led the economy into recession this year.

“Notwithstanding these strong headwinds, our company, aided by the currency devaluation, continued fiscal discipline by management, by government policies, managed to perform admirably under the circumstances.

“Rubber prices, whilst still off their 2013/14 highs, showed a slight improvement, allowing it to remain positive at the operational level in 2016.

“Local Crude Palm Oil(CPO) prices, mainly as a result of changes in policy, combined with the effects of devaluation and inflation, resulted in average increase in the naira price of CPO by 55 percent in 2016,’’ he said.

He said that the total oil palm area, including that of Extension 2, was 14, 463 hectares, adding that the Extension 2 had been transformed with the planting of the first 4,000 hectares of palm.

Oyebode added that another 4,000 hectares would be planted in 2017, while additional 1,000 would be planted in 2018.

The chairman said that the company had co-existed peacefully with the host community through dialogue.

He said that projects, bursaries, assistance and skill acquisition programmes valued at N125m was contributed to the community during the year under review.

In an independent audit report signed by Mr Babatunde Lawal for Harwath Dafinone, Chartered Accountants, Okomu Oil was given a clean bill of health for the year in question.

“In accordance with Section 359(2) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2004, we confirm that we received all of the information and explanations that were required for the purpose of the audit,’’ the audit report stated.