Computer Warehouse Group Records N15bn Revenue

By Goddy Egene

Computer Warehouse Group (CW) Plc, a pan African information communication technology (ICT) has recorded   revenues  of N15.3 billion for the year ended December  31, 2014, showing  a decline of 26 per cent from N20.6 billion in 2013. Gross profit fell by 27 per cent from N3.9 billion to N3.0 billion, reflecting the harsh operating environment and the fall in oil prices, which slowed down economic activities during the year.

The company's  gross margin improved  from 19 per cent by  from   to 20 per cent, while the financing costs and general operating costs declined by 43 per cent and 15 per cent from N348.7 million to N199 million and N3.2 billion to N3.2 billion respectively, indicating  better efficiency of its operations. According to the company, the bottom line figures were affected primarily by two factors.

 

"First was the drop in the revenue figures with a less than corresponding drop in the operating costs. The second was the foreign exchange losses, of up to N380 million arising out from the gradual devaluation of the Naira and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive that excluded IT related companies from the Retail Dutch Auction System (RDAS) foreign exchange window," the company said.

Speaking on the performance, the Chief Operating Officer,  CWG, Mr. Philip Obioha, stated that the results reflected the current harsh operating environment, saying the macroeconomic trend,  which the company started experiencing from the second part of last year, is expected to continue into the first quarter of 2015, until the conclusion of the successful presidential elections.

Also commenting on the results,  Group Chief Executive Officer of CWG, Mr. Austin Okere,said the company would continue to consolidate her operations in new systems and processes to achieve improved cost efficiencies in the face of stiffer competition, and dwindling margins

"In doing so, we shall achieve a cost leadership position whilst delivering superior service to our customers," he said.

The Chief Technical Officer of the company, Mr. James Agada, emphasised the group’s focus, in continuing investments in new lines of business, christened CWG2.0, which are better positioned to withstand macroeconomic shocks, especially those relating to foreign exchange.

For instance,  he noted that, SMERP, the cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product for SMEs is ready for roll out and is currently being tested by a few Organisations.

"There are also collaborative agreements with multilateral organizations, which are focused on the growth of SMEs, in achieving inclusive growth in Nigeria, to deploy this product. CWG’s flagship e-commerce technology platform, openshopen.ng.  is currently being deployed, with a few online shops running on it, with the plan for a mass rollout towards the 3rd quarter of 2015.

Openshopen, an investee company of CWG, ( also operates globally in Ireland, Spain, brazil, Portugal, Chile, Mexico, Kenya, , Colombia & Panama), is an online enabling technology at the forefront of facilitating businesses which aspire to grow fast at a lower cost, by going online and making their goods and services available on a wider spread, on  the internet," Agada said.

He added that there is also the free to air services which the group is 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 the second quarter of this year. CWG’s smart grid solution for electricity distribution Companies (Discos) has been running for some of the Discos in Nigeria and we expect that this new line of business will be at implementation stage by Q3 2015. It is targeted at eliminating electricity theft, thereby improving the efficiency of the whole electricity distribution ecosystem," he said.