The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CWG

  • Our listing was one of our many successes, says CWG CEO

    Group Chief Executive Officer, CWG Plc, Mr. James Agada, has said the listing of the information and communication technology company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was one of the highpoints of its achievements in the past 25 years.

    Speaking at a Gala Night organised by the company in celebration of its 25th Silver Jubilee anniversary in Lagos, Agada said CWG had recorded several memorable moments in the past 25 years to become a leading information and communications technology provider in Nigeria.

    Admitting that it would be difficult to single out any particular moments in the life of the company as the most memorable one, Agada, who took over as the CEO in early 2016 said the company has enjoyed several moments that can be said to be memorable.

    According to him, the highpoint of the memorable moments was the listing of CWG on the NSE in November 2013, after the company had worked hard and hoped to be listed on NASDAQ.

    “It has been 25 years of many memorable moments in the life of CWG, but it will be very difficult to rate which one is most. A long time ago we were working and wishing that we would be listed on NASDAQ, and in November 2013, we got listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. That was a big milestone,” Agada said.

    He added that the survival of CWG from one generation to another generation; where in January of 2016, the company transitioned from the founder of the company to a new management is another memorable landmark for the organisation, pointing out that not every company founded by a Nigerian has survived beyond its founder.

    He pointed out that the introduction of Finacle by CWG into the Nigerian economy and the impact it made in becoming the core banking application in Nigeria was a period of immense pride for the company, even up till today.

    CWG Plc, formerly known as Computer Warehouse Group, started as a Dell reseller in 1992. However, the company has since grown to be the largest system integration company in Sub-Saharan Africa with offices in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun and Uganda; and partners in 27 other African countries. CWG has also graduated more than 1,500 students through its CWG Academy, which was started in 2010 to fill the gap in the ICT skills market.

  • Shareholders endorse CWG’s expansion into telecom services

    •Assures on sustained profit

    Shareholders of CWG Plc yesterday in Lagos amended the memorandum of association of the company to include provision of telecommunication services in its portfolio of businesses. The amendment will allow CWG to provide value-added services in the vast telecommunication and digital business.

    At the annual general meeting in Lagos, shareholders commended the rebound in the operations of the company as the bottom-line recovered from a net loss of N1.8 billion in 2015 to a net profit of N127.7 million in 2016.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of CWG for the year ended December 31, 2016 showed a rebound from a pre-tax loss of N1.75 billion in 2015 to pre-tax profit of N142.0 million in 2016. Group turnover however declined from N15.6 billion to N10.17 billion.

    Speaking at the meeting, Chairman, CWG Plc, Mr. Abiodun Fawunmi, attributed the rebound in the performance of the company to new well articulated and implemented strategies that steadied the group against the operating challenges.

    According to him, the improvement was due to strategic cost optimisation initiatives adopted by the management including mitigated measures against foreign exchange losses, the absence of income reversals and non-recurrence of inventory write-offs.

    “The impressive result recorded by the company last year is attributable to our focus on profitable information technology solutions with deliberately less exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations and with predictable recurrent revenues,” Fawunmi said.

    He assured that the company has an impressive and promising outlook for investors as its strategic decision to leverage on home-grown initiatives has built-in a running resilience that allows the company to thrive in spite of the tough economic environment.

    He said the company will continue to focus on its recurrent businesses with lower cost of sales and more predictable and recurring income adding that the company will ensure improved penetration of its home-grown products in various sectors of the economy.

    Managing Director, CWG Plc, Mr James Agada said the company will in the current year convert its investments in new services in its utility, health, transport and government sectors into contributors to the top-line and bottom-line.

    He added that group would also invest in converting its previous outright sales businesses into subscription mode businesses while it will start several initiatives to sustain overall performance.

    “Our ultimate target is to become one of the largest providers of IT platform services out of Africa by 2020. We will be well on our way by meeting the target of six million transactions per month in the next year and then growing aggressively from there to a minimum of sixty million transactions per month by 2020. Meeting these targets set us on the way to reaching the $1 billion a year benchmark,” Agada said.

    “Your company is in the business of solving problems with technology and as we continue to solve them, the value of your investments will continue to grow,” Agada assured shareholders.

  • How FinTech is disrupting services, by CWG

    Having enjoyed centuries of monopoly, assured by the support of regulation, including through stringent requirements to new licensees, the erstwhile secured future of traditional banks is facing a heightened threat of disruption from financial technology companies (or FinTechs),  founder, Computer Warehouse  Group (CWG), Austin Okere, has said.

    According to him, the FinTechs are exploiting pent-up customer dissatisfaction and new technologies such as blockchain, coupled with the significant boost in smartphone adoption and pervasive broadband to disrupt the sector.

    In a presentation titled: Austin Okere’s Five Forces Model for Analysing the Future of Banking, he said the foundation of the Fintechs’ disruptive model lies in a peer-to-peer model for transactions, without any middleman or central authority in mind, a model that will possibly render the current establishment totally redundant and irrelevant.

    He said: “The biggest threat to the banks has been precisely their seeming success; centuries of relatively significant higher returns, even in the midst of economic downturns that adversely affect the real sectors, have engendered an attitude of invincibility and pomposity, characterised by a loss of touch with their customers.

    “Considered too big to fail, they take it for granted that they will be bailed out with taxpayers’ money in the event of any missteps – a perfect prey for disruption.

    “There are indeed five forces that will define the new face of banking:  The banks – traditional and established, best with cash and ancillary instruments; Fintechs – the new kid on the block, disrupter, mostly telecom roots, best with digital currencies and mobile services; Regulators – Central Banks, regulating traditional banks; and Nigeria Communication Commissions, responsible for telecoms regulation (and thus Fintechs); currencies – traditional, such as cash and cheques; or digital, such as bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies; and customers – the weight and force of their new found voice. Typically, they clamour for whatever will give them convenience and lower costs.

    According to him, customers are the most significant force, and represented by the outermost sector of the concentric circles. As they tend more towards a preference for digital currencies, the Fintechs will tend to assume a more prominent role in the new face of banking, and the Regulatory regime will inadvertently tend towards the Communication Commissions under whose purview the Fintechs fall. This will introduce a regulatory imbroglio, as future ‘Huge Banks’ may fall outside the regulatory ambit of Central Banks (as seems to be the case with the MPESA mobile money platform, through which 25million Kenyans transacted $28 billion in 2015, representing about 44 per cent of the country’s GDP. Safaricom, the telecoms promoter of MPESA ironically falls under the regulation of the Communications Authority of Kenya rather than the Kenyan  Central Bank).

    “If the customers however, maintain a strong appetite for traditional instruments of financial transactions such as notes and coins, cheques etc. then the current status quo will remain. The face of banking will thus be more of the same, and the regulatory authority will continue to be Central Banks. “Between these two positions may be many variants, depending on the appetite and preferences of customers, and the pace at which they are willing to embrace change,” he said.

    According to him, the essence of the model is to enable players equip themselves with the imperatives that will ensure that their business is continuously relevant in the sector. It helps to guide the formulation of their prediction based on whether there will indeed be a disruption; what the disrupted space will look like; the scale of disruption; and the pace of disruption

    He averred that a correct application of Austin’s Five Forces model will define the difference between whether players will continue to be in business, or whether your business model will become irrelevant and redundant.

    “Even though I developed the Austin’s five forces model, primarily to analyse the direction of the future of banking, the model can also be used to analyse any industry which is susceptible to disruption from the pervasive blockchain technology; including real estate; for instance, EY’s Australian operations piloted a real estate blockchain ecosystem that is now being used in the market to trade full, and even fractional ownership of properties. And also government, for example, Ukraine has partnered with global technology company, the Bitfury Group to put a sweeping range of government data on a blockchain platform. Dubai also has an ambitious blockchain strategy to issue all government documents on blockchain by 2020,” Okere said.

  • CWG reverses loss with N142m profit

    CWG Plc, formerly Computer Warehouse Group, drew on increasing operating efficiency, internal cost management and farsighted foreign exchange risk management to reverse a pre-tax loss of N1.75 billion in 2015 to profit of N142 million in 2016. Highlights of the audited report and accounts of CWG Plc for the year ended December 31, 2016, released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed that the information and communication technology company witnessed considerable improvement in its underlying profitability.

    In spite of the macro-economic challenges that constrained turnover, cost optimisation strategies adopted by the management, significantly reduced costs across the parameters, providing the headroom for the company to override 34.8 per cent decline in sales and pushed back from a loss position in 2015 to a profit position in 2016.

    The report showed that while turnover dropped by 34.8 per cent from N15.61 billion in 2015 to N10.17 billion in 2016, the management optimised cost of sales by reducing it by 41.6 per cent from N13.17 billion in 2015 to N7.69 billion in 2016. Gross profit thus rose from N2.44 billion in 2015 to N2.47 billion in 2016.

    With 40.8 per cent reduction in administrative expenses from N4.41 billion to N2.61 billion and another 10 per cent reduction in finance cost from N170.13 million to N152.76 million, the company reversed from a pre-tax loss of N1.75 billion in 2015 to a pre-tax profit of N142 million in 2016. After taxes, net profit stood at N127.68 million in 2016 as against net loss of N1.80 billion in 2015.

    Underlying profit ratios also underscored the considerable improvement in the intrinsic profit-making capacity of the company. Gross profit margin, which underlined the efficiency of the top-line cost management, improved from 16 per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent in 2016. Pre-tax profit margin recovered from a negative of-11 per cent in 2015 to a positive margin of 1.0 per cent in 2016. The balance sheet of the company also emerged stronger as total assets rose by 40.26 per cent from N10.53 billion in 2015 to N14.77 billion in 2016. Shareholders’ funds also improved from N3.06 billion to N3.19 billion.

    Chief Executive Officer, CWG Plc, Mr. James Agada, said the 2016 results reflected the continuing focus of the company on sustainable income streams, cost management and extraction of best value for the shareholders.

    According to him, in the face of the tough operating environment, the Group made a strategic decision to focus on profitable IT Solutions with less exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations and with predictable recurrent revenues.

    He noted that the decline in costs was as a result of several initiatives taken by the management including many measures taken to mitigate foreign exchange losses, reduce borrowings and improve receivable collections. Foreign exchange loss stood at N600 million in 2015 while the company also suffered inventory write-offs of N431 million and income reversals of N250 million in 2015.

    Agada said the CWG was at the frontier of deployment of IT solutions adding that the company would continue to benefit as Nigerian public and private sector stakeholders adopt cutting-edge technologies.

    He noted that the CWG has been working in partnerships with banks in deploying innovative technology-based products that enable customers’ access financial and other value added services through various mobile platforms while furthering the national goal of financial inclusion.

    He assured shareholders that the directors of the company would continue to chart the course of steady and sustainable growth with a view to ensuring good returns to shareholders.

    He expressed optimism that while the operating environment remains challenging, the company will build on its 2016 performance in 2017 as many initiatives are expected to be activated this year to support the steady growth of the company.

  • CWG showcases platform for SMEs

    Pan-African Information Technology company, CWG Plc is presently participating in the Enugu SME Week, where it is showcasing the company’s Enterprise Resource Planning platform built to enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) manage their business operations efficiently.

    The Buisness Development Manager, (SMERP), Mr ChidiebereAsiegbu, said its participation at the event is in line with its strategic intent of deploying technology solutions that enables growth, especially for the SMEs segment of the Nigerian economy, which accounts for over 25 percent of employment in the country.

    Asiegbu, said with SMERP SMEs can easily setup an E-commerce website with different categories of products, adding that the solution is suitable for any business like retailing, hospital management, manufacturing and school management.

  • CWG records N8.6b turnover in first half

    Computer Warehouse Group  (CWG) Plc recorded mar-ginal growth in turnover to N8.6 billion in the first half of this year as the information and communication technology company continued to chart the path to predictable growth and returns.

    The six-month report for the period ended June 30, 2015 showed turnover of N8.6 billion in first half 2015 as against N8.4 billion recorded in comparable period of 2014. However, business margins were squeezed from 20 per cent in 2014 to 14 per cent in 2015, as the company was unable to fully pass increased costs to her customers.

    The report showed that there was a seven per cent increase in operating expenses to N1.4 billion in 2015 as against N1.3 billion in 2014. The company blamed the increase in operating expenses on one-off restructuring expenses.

    Executive Director, Finance and Operations, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Mr. Kunle Ayodeji, said the performance of the company in the first half reflected the challenging business environment during the period, with many organisations holding back on new capital expenditure and investments, as the economic direction of the new government is being observed.

    He said the company is making a shift towards recurrent and subscription businesses which are more predictable, have increased margins and are less dependent on macroeconomic challenges, especially those arising from foreign exchange.

    He noted that the loss of N350 million recorded during the period reflected the continued difficulty of the Nigerian business environment in 2015 pointing out that with a significant segment of the company’s business dependent on international procurement, the difficulties of foreign exchange sourcing had a negative impact on the results.

    He added that the first half result was affected by the recognition of foreign exchange losses of N277 million and the write-off of N103 million, arising from the cancellation of a transaction duly recognized in fourth quarter of 2014. However, the company finished with a strong cash position of N1.3 billion at the end of the quarter.

    It should be recalled that the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Computer Warehouse Group, Mr. Austin Okere in a recent publication highlighted the yields from the company’s subscription business model which started in the second half of 2015 and the products being better positioned to withstand macroeconomic shocks.

    The products under the new business model include the CWG-SMERP, the cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product for SMEs, the award-winning Openshopen.ng which is an eCommerce technology platform, CWG-SES Teleport Services providing digital satellite broadcast, cloud solution for micro finance institutions in partnership with MTN  (dubbed MTN XaaS), CWG’s Mobile Financial Services in partnership with CIT Vericash, Finedge Solution, which has powered Diamond Yello Account (DYA), electricity theft detection & prevention systems, and CWG’s IGR Solution for States amongst others.

    While reviewing the H1 financial report, Mr. Okere reiterated that the company’s future looks promising as the products under her subscription business model are well positioned to soar above macroeconomic shocks, especially foreign exchange fluctuations that affect businesses generally.

     

  • CWG wins Wincor’s ATM award

    Pan African business transformation information communication technology (ICT) company, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc has won the Wincor Nixdorf Best Absolute Achievement award.

    The presentation was made at the recent Wincor Nixdorf’s Portugal, Middle East and Africa (PMEA) Regional Partners’ Conference and Award Ceremony in Mauritius.

    The PMEA conference and award is a yearly event where Wincor Nixdorf celebrates her partners in the PMEA region for their sales performances and shares the Company’s focus for the next Fiscal year.

    At the recent event, 10 partners were selected for Top sales performance and CWG Plc camefirst while Nigerian Companies—Cyber space Networks Limited and Soft Works Limited took  fifth and seventh positions. Computer Networks from United Arab Emirates was the first runner up to CWG Plc.

    Presenting the award to the Head of e-Channels Business for CWG, Mr. Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, President of Wincor Nixdorf, Mr. Eckard Heidlof, noted that CWG’s performance in the year under review, is outstanding and, therefore, the award is a well-deserved honour for such a dependable partner as CWG.

    “CWG’s contribution in Fiscal Year, 2014 made it possible for Wincor Nixdorf to meet her target in PMEA,” he added.

    Receiving the award, Ladipo-Ajai expressed his gratitude for the recognition. According to him, it is always good to see the reward of commitment as it triggers greater commitment.

    “At CWG, excellent customer service delivery has been the bedrock for greater achievements. We hold our customers in high esteem, hence our commitment to deliver what we promise in spite of any challenge.

    “CWG, having topped the chart in sales and support performance consecutively for two years—2013 and 2014, is a proof that the company is the number one e-Channel service provider in Nigeria,”Ladipo-Ajai said.

    Also, he said the recognition challenges the company to sustain service excellence.

    Heidloff noted that the company is refocusing its business on driving the hardware business using Software and retail services.

    “Wincor Nixdorf is favourably positioned to support retail banks and retailers in their efforts to combine digital and stationary channels to the customer,” said Heidloff.

    In addition, he said the new concept – Omni-channel solution,allows the integration of different sales channels such as the internet, call centers, and branch or store structures.

  • CWG Nigeria’s next Alibaba, says NSE chief

    CWG Nigeria’s next Alibaba, says NSE chief

    Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema has said Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG) is capable of being the Alibaba of Nigeria, following the adoption of its subscription based business model known as CWG 2.0.

    He spoke when he led top management staff of the NSE on a working visit to CWG’s corporate headquarters in Lagos.

    He said: “From their subscription businesses which they call CWG 2.0, to their legacy business which is more infrastructure-based, CWG has done quite well. We have been to their Tier 3 Data centre which supports multiple businesses. We have seen their contact centre, where they handle inbound calls. In all, it is professionally run. We are quite excited at the possibility of growth and how the Company might be the next Alibaba for Nigeria.”

    Speaking about the performance of CWG since it was listed on the Exchange last year, Onyema said: “CWG has been a very good listed Company. They have complied with the pre and post listing standards. They have been a good ambassador of what it means to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

    “As you know, at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in May, WEF recognised CWG as one of the Global Growth Companies in the world. So, we are very excited about their performance in the ICT sector of the Stock Exchange. They are the biggest security in the sector, and we are very happy at what they are doing.”

    According to Onyema, the visit is in line with the practice of the NSE. He noted that the visit is paid to listed companies by the Brokers’ Community so as to better understand their operations, which will in-turn equip brokers with the required information to advise clients, especially at the brokers level.

  • Nigeria’s businesses competitive, says CWG chief

    The founder and Chief Executive Officer, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), Mr. Austin Okere, has said in spite of all the challenges, Nigeria’s businesses remain competitive.

    Addressing a group of graduate students in the Private Equity and Entrepreneurship in Africa Course with Professor Murray Low of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Centre during the Entrepreneurs in Residence Week in New York,  United States (U.S),  he said Nigeria is one of the top three investors’ destinations in Africa.

    Okere, who is Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) at Columbia Business School, quoted figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), adding that of the $57billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that Africa attracted last year, Nigeria got the lion share of about $5.6billion. He said this is  remarkable given that only six other countries attracted investments above $3billion.

    He spoke against the backdrop of the country moving up five places in the latest release of the World Bank Doing Business Report.

    This, he averred, is well above the average improvement of two positions by  Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (MINT countries). More importantly, the “Starting a Business”and “Getting Credit” pillars saw the most significant changes, moving up nine and 73 places respectively, indicating better engagement with the  Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector, which tends to be the engine of growth in most developing economies.

    He urged his audience to explore other viable geographies, adding that his views aligns with the one expressed at the World Economic Forum Meeting of the Global Champions in Tianjin, China, that the new frontiers for business expansion following saturation in the developed markets were Africa and Latin America.

    He, however, cautioned against wholesale importation of western business model templates into these emerging markets given the different geographies, peoples and cultures. He urged local partnerships to explore the immense opportunities in a mutually beneficial manner.

    Okere said significant milestones have been achieved in  areas such as broadband access, making it possible to pursue hitherto impossible business models in cloud computing and eCommerce.

    He said giant strides have been made in the reforms in power, agriculture, SME support and financial inclusion through Central Bank’s Cashless Initiative, leading to improved financial transparency; and the adoption of the International Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting standard leading to greater corporate governance standards.

     

     

     

  • CWG eyes N16.5b turnover, N300m net profit

    Computer Warehouse Group Plc plans to grow its turnover to N16.5 billion as the company moves to consolidate the income streams from its traditional business.

    In a review of the business outlook of the company, chief executive officer, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Mr Austin Okere, said the company plans to optimize and recognise revenues from its traditional brick and mortar business which shall see a 46 per cent increase in revenue in the fourth quarter to close 2014 at about N16.5 billion.

    Okere, who founded CWG, said the company could end the year with a net profit of N300 million, some 61 per cent increase on its third quarter performance.

    According to him, the group has made great strides in the introduction of its new subscription based business lines and its profit outlook is a reflection of continuing improvement in margins driven by greater efficiency and good focus on the growth of managed services.

    “The company is firmly focused on scaling her new subscription businesses, under the CWG 2.0 umbrella, in order to see a change in the profitability trend by half of 2015,” Okere said.

    He outlined that the first among these new businesses is the SMERP, a cloud based ERP product that is ready for roll out and is currently being tested by a few organisations while there are also on-going discussions with multilateral organisations that are focused on SMEs and inclusive growth in Nigeria to collaborate on the roll out of this product.

    He added that there is also the flagship e-commerce technology platform, Openshopen.ng, a  product, that has been running a beta test with a few organisations, with the plan for a mass rollout in the first quarter of 2015.

    “There is also the free to air services which the group will be offering in collaboration with the second largest satellite provider in Europe. This service would launch with 30 TV channels and is planned to be launched in quarter 4, this year. CWG’s smart grid solution to Electricity distribution Companies (DISCOS) is at POC stage with two of the largest Discos in Nigeria and we expect that this new line of business will be at implementation stage by Q3 2015,” Okere said.

    According to him, CWG will continue to focus on growing the brand through initiatives directed towards empowering the African entrepreneur.

    “The declining sales is partly reflective of some changes in procurement pattern for ICT goods generally.  As part of seeking efficiencies in ICT procurements, users’ procurement processes are increasingly stretched, to find best value from competing offers,” he said.

    He said in spite of the challenges, the financial position of the group remains strong with adequate liquidity, leverage and efficiency ratios.