…as export surges by 206%
Nigeria’s agro-allied giant that is based in Edo State, Okomu Oil Plc, has nearly surpassed in the first six months of 2024, the performance its recorded throughout 2023, with both revenue and profit after tax in H1 2024 as nearly as the amounts the firm realised throughout 2023, boosted by favourable prices at the local and international markets.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that the price of a bottle of palm oil rose by 56.9 percent from N1174 as of June 2023 to N1842.27 at half year 2024.
Okomu’s half-year 2024 revenue rose to N75 billion up from N40.60 billion as of June 2023. The revenue came from earnings generated from the local and international markets. Local sales rose by 76.7 percent to N67.27 billion in the first six months of this year, compared with N38.07 billion that was realised in the corresponding period of 2023.
The chief executive officer of Okomu Oil, Dr Graham Hefer, in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Observer team, had earlier attributed in part, the structures the Edo State Government had put in place, as helping to facilitate the activities of agro-allied investors in the state.
“The structure that the government has brought into the agriculture sector has helped a lot; the manner in which government is doing business, we find a lot more readiness from the government institutions, to work with the companies, the reports, the tools, the manner in which the government has put together various departments now are far more constructive.”
Interestingly, Okomu’s export sales rose a record 206.2 percent to N7.74 billion from January to June 2024 in contrast to N2.53 billion as of June 2023.
In the same interview referenced above, Okomu’s managing director, Graham Hefer enjoined Nigerian businesses to explore the options of exporting their goods overseas in order to earn the much-needed hard currencies.
“To find the forex is actually very difficult in an environment where there is such a limited amount of it going around and that does affect the company as well but luckily, we have been buffered to a greater or lesser extent by our rubber exports. I will say this is a good time to export because you do have these kinds of things and I think if a company is able to export a product, it does make it an advantage for the company,” Hefer said.
Cost of sales at half year 2024 increased by 174.6 percent to N30.46 billion, up from N9.42 billion as of June 2023. The bulk of the cost of sales was incurred in the oil palm segment, according to the analysis of the firm’s financials. Cost of sales was N26.4 billion in the oil palm segment as of June 2024, representing 86.6 percent of the total cost of sales Okomu expended during the first six months of this year. It also amounted to a 180.5 percent increase in comparison to the N9.41 billion incurred as of June 2023.
Profit after tax for the period stood at N20.20 billion as at half year 2024 compared to N16.19 billion as of June 2023.
It should be noted that in the full year 2023, Okomu Oil generated N75.11 billion as revenue and N20.56 billion as profit after tax, indicating it has almost achieved everything it made in 2023 within the first six months of 2024.
According to Okomu’s projection for the third quarter for the period that will end by September 30, 2024, the first has projected it will realise N13.05 billion as revenue for the period, with cost of sales, selling and general administrative expenses amounting to about N11.99 billion. Profit for the period was put at N1.06 billion.
In FY 2023, Okomu Oil Palm paid N14 per share as the final dividend to its shareholders. The dividend was paid on 23rd of May 2024.
