TheCable

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) says it received an interim dividend of N450 million out of the N1.5 billion declared by Waltersmith Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited.

Interim dividend is the distribution of earnings to shareholders before annual earnings are calculated.

In a statement by Daniel Kikile, general manager in charge of corporate communications at NCDMB, the company said the payment represents NCDMB’s 30 percent share in the company for the year ended 2023.

In 2018, the NCDMB had invested $10 million to acquire a 30 percent stake in the 5,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) modular refinery project located at Ibigwe, Imo state.

The board had said the move was to support the federal government’s policy on modular refineries.

Felix Ogbe, executive secretary of NCDMB, said a total dividend of N4.5 billion was declared by Waltersmith for the 2023 fiscal year, subject to final approval at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM).

The company, he said, reported a total profit of N23.6 billion as profit after tax for the same year.

Ogbe said of the total N4.5 billion dividend, the NCDMB anticipates an additional 30 percent of the outstanding N3 billion dividend after the AGM is convened later in the year.

He added that the receipt of the interim dividend payment demonstrates the strong performance and profitability of Waltersmith Refinery.

“The NCDMB is proud to be a part of this success and looks forward to continued collaboration with the company in the future,” Ogbe said.

He said the company is expanding the refinery capacity from 5,000 bpd to 10,000 bpd, noting that the expansion project is 44 percent completed and “on time to be commissioned by early 2025”.

The NCDMB’s investment in the Waltersmith project, he said, was also geared towards catalysing the industrialisation of the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its linkage sectors as well as deepening local content.