By Oke Peter
The National Engineering and Technical Company Limited on Friday announced that its profit before tax for the 2017 financial year dropped by 34 per cent to N3.26bn when compared with the previous year.
NETCO, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, stated that the PBT decreased by 34 per cent when compared with the N4.9bn it recorded the preceding year.
The company’s Board Chairman, who doubles as the NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mallam Bello Rabiu, said the decrease was attributable to the foreign exchange gains, which constituted 56 per cent before tax in 2016 as compared to 4.8 per cent gain in 2017.
He, however, stated that the firm’s revenue increased by 122 per cent from N10.13bn in the previous year to N22.46bn in 2017.
Rabiu stated this at the firm’s 2017 Annual General Meeting in Abuja.
He said the operating profit of NETCO increased by 134 per cent from N0.89bn in 2016 to N2.07bn in 2017, adding that the result was the outcome of improved performance in project execution and cost reduction measures, as well as the new addition of construction and procurement portfolios in the company’s activities.
Rabiu observed that for the first time since the establishment of NETCO, the company was able to declare the highest dividend of N750bn to its shareholders at the AGM.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, commended the management of NETCO for the performance and assured the company of his continued support.
Baru stated that based on the firm’s performance, he would ensure that NETCO got more projects, especially in the gas sector.
He congratulated the outgoing Managing Director of NETCO, Siky Aliyu, for leaving a legacy behind for his successor, and expressed optimism that the company would perform better next year.
Aliyu had earlier stated that the company set a target to perform 600,000 man-hours of work in 2018, adding that it would continue to explore new opportunities and improve on service delivery to engender more confidence in its clients and stakeholders.
He said his retirement from the corporation would take effect from May this year, adding that he would leave behind a firm that had the largest information technology facilities in the engineering field, with a wide range of choice software for process simulations, plant modelling, structural analysis, stress analysis, designing of control systems engineering, drafting and project management.
NETCO was established in 1989 to acquire engineering technology through direct involvement in all aspects of engineering in the oil and gas and non-oil sectors of the economy. It recently added construction and procurement to its portfolios in the industry.
