Trustfund profit hits N1.5b, declares 25k dividend

The profit of Trustfund Pensions Limited before tax grew to N1.457 billion in 2016, as opposed to N1.3billion in 2015. The Board Chairman of Trustfund, Ismail Agaka, who disclosed this at the yearly general meeting (AGM) of the foremost Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) in Abuja.

The total operating income of Trustfund Pensions also grew to N4.97 billion in 2016 as against N4.66 billion in 2015. The company also declared 25Kobo for every one Naira for its shareholders.

“Despite the rough economic dynamics I am pleased to announce that our company performed well. Total revenues for the year ended 31st December 2016 were N4.971billion; expenses were N3.892billion while profit after tax for the year was N1.249 billion. These results are encouraging when compared with total revenues of N4.662billion, expenses N3.850 billion and profit after tax of N1.018billion for the year ended 31st December 2015. Cost to income ratio also dropped from 83 per cent to (December 2015) to 78 per cent as at December 2016.”

The Board chairman explained that the achievements were made despite the harsh operating environment that is fraught with economic recession, which resulted in mass sack of workers and non-remittance of pension funds.

His words: “The year 2016 was a challenging year as Nigeria officially went into recession, which affected all levels of government. The recession also affected the private sector with many companies closing or downsizing their activities to enable them ride its effects.”

He stated that despite the challenges, 2016 was a year of healthy growth in adjusted earnings, saying, “notwithstanding the challenging macro-economic environment, we made good progress in achieving our short to medium strategic objectives.”

Projecting into the future, Agaka expressed optimism that the Board intends to sustain the current momentum of generating healthy key financial indicators with forward-looking board, sound management and resilient workforce.

On her part, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Trustfund Pensions, Mrs Helen Da-Souza, said though the operating environment was harsh, innovation and deployment of cutting-edge technology played a key role in the achievements of the firm.

She said: “It is really tough to achieve anything substantial in this sector without innovation and adopting cutting-edge technology that is driven by crop of professionals that we have in Trustfund Pensions.”