The management of NASCON Allied Industries Plc, a member of the Dangote Group released its financials for the year ended December 31, 2018 with a profit after tax of N4.4 billion.
The shareholders will however be paid a dividend payout of N100 per share for every 50 kobo share held.
According to the company’s result, profit after tax declined by 17.28 per cent to N4.42 billion as against N5.34 billion declared in 2017, while revenue stood at N25.77 billion.
Analysts have attributed the decline in revenue and profitability to the company’s idling vegetable oil and tomato plants for straight two years.
It has however been projected that the shareholders will gain a bumper harvest in the preceding year as latest reports say the company’s Kano-based tomato paste plant has resumed operations. It would be recalled that Tomato paste has been idle for over two years owing to a supply disruption partly caused by a price dispute with farmers
The 1,200 metric tons per day factory, meant to meet domestic demand, reportedly restarted production last week processing about 100 tons a day.
Managing director of Dangote Farms Limited, Abdulkareem Kaita said “The major challenge was the scarcity of tomato, because the local tomato growers could not meet our production demand, we also could not agree with the farmers on the price of tomato per basket.”
He noted that under a new deal with the farmers, the factory will buy tomatoes at prices pegged to what local markets are selling.
“Dangote is also developing its own farms with a special tomato strain that could yield 60 tons per hectare, compared with the yield of 10 tons per hectare being recorded by the local farmers, Kaita said. The company plans to distribute the seedlings to growers to boost their output,” he said.