Cement Company boasts of 2 million installed capacity

•Posts N5.9 billion profit in 2018
The Chairman, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria CCCNN), formerly known as Sokoto Cement Abdulsamad Rabiu, has revealed that the merger between Sokoto Cement and Kalambaina Cement, enabled it increase capacity to two million metric tonnes yearly.

Following its listing on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on December 31, 2018, Rabiu said the successful merger of the companies transformed CCNN into becoming the 12th largest quoted company on the NSE.

This is just as he announced that the company recorded N5.9 billion profit after tax in the 2018 financial year, against N2.9 billion achieved in 2017.

Rabiu, who disclosed this yesterday, at CCNN’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, also said: “During the year 2018, the company had revenue of N32 billion compared to N20 billion in 2017.”

He noted that the 2018 post-tax profit was the highest ever in the history of the company, stressing that the board of directors will continue to support CCNN management to perform better.

However, despite the improved performance, the board recommended a lower dividend payout at 40 kobo per share against the N1.25 kobo per share declared in 2017, to the disappointment of shareholders.

Speaking with The Guardian, a shareholder, Gregory Emeh, expressed disappointment at the 40 kobo dividend payout, saying: “Agreed that the company has improved its performance; we appreciate the efforts of the board as well as the management, but one thing is clear, we were expecting to get more than this 40 kobo. if you will recall, the company declared  N1.25 kobo dividend per share last year, it would have been better to retain this than reducing it; we hope the situation will improve in 2019.”