VFD Group Plc has announced a full-year pre-tax profit of N12.4 billion for 2024, marking a significant turnaround from the N1 billion pre-tax loss recorded in 2023.

This remarkable recovery, detailed in the company’s earnings report released on February 10, 2025, on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), highlights strong revenue growth, strategic investments, and operational efficiency.

The company reported gross earnings of N83.2 billion, reflecting an 84.5% increase compared to the N45.1 billion recorded in the previous year. Net revenue rose sharply to N32.2 billion, representing a 164.15% year-over-year increase from N12.1 billion in 2023. The group’s total assets surged to N328.6 billion, a 49.90% increase from N219.2 billion, reflecting the company’s commitment to strengthening its financial base.

According to Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nonso Okpala, the remarkable financial recovery was driven by strategic investments and divestments, which significantly boosted earnings and profitability.

“Strategic investments and divestments contributed to an increase in earnings and profitability this year. We have worked on reinforcing our financial resilience, expanding our investment portfolio, and improving our governance framework, with a focus on digital innovation,” Okpala said.

VFD Group’s investment income, which accounted for 85.54% of total earnings, rose by 107.62% to N71.1 billion. The increase was largely due to successful divestments, treasury interest, loan growth, and dividends from strategic assets. Other income, which accounted for 11.24% of gross earnings, rose by 31.60% year-over-year to N9.35 billion, with growth driven by logistics, hospitality, fair value gains, and foreign exchange gains.

The company also recorded net gains on financial assets at fair value totaling N2.65 billion, representing a 7.30% increase from N3.29 billion in the previous year. Additionally, the share of profit from associates was N30.04 million, contributing a small portion of total earnings.

One of the most notable improvements in the financial report was net investment income, which skyrocketed by 1,318.95% year-over-year, growing from N1.5 billion in 2023 to N21.7 billion in 2024. This substantial increase underscores the effectiveness of the company’s financial strategy.

VFD Group’s operating profit also rebounded to N11.3 billion, a stark improvement from the N4.1 billion loss recorded in the previous year. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) surged by 119.08% year-over-year, reflecting improved operational efficiency and cost management.

The pre-tax profit of N12.4 billion marks a sharp reversal from the N1 billion loss in 2023, while the post-tax profit reached N10.4 billion, a substantial improvement from the N750 million loss recorded in the previous year. As a result of these gains, earnings per share (EPS) rose to N8.22 from a negative N3.95 in 2023, signaling a strong recovery for shareholders.

The company also recorded an increase in total assets, which rose by 49.90% year-over-year, reaching N328.6 billion from N219.2 billion in 2023. The significant growth in assets reflects VFD Group’s continued focus on enhancing its investment portfolio and strengthening financial stability.

A breakdown of key asset categories shows that investments in financial assets accounted for N189.8 billion, forming a significant portion of the company’s total revenue. Other holdings amounted to N58.1 billion, while investment properties stood at N35.8 billion, reflecting the company’s growing real estate interests. The company also held N24.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents, ensuring ample liquidity for future expansion and investment opportunities.

As part of its long-term strategy, VFD Group also successfully executed a rights issue of N12.5 billion, which led to a 90% increase in shareholders’ funds, now standing at approximately N61.98 billion. This strengthened capital base improves the company’s financial stability, leverage profile, and future growth prospects.

Reflecting on these achievements, Okpala emphasized the group’s commitment to long-term sustainability, innovation, and financial resilience. He noted that the company has implemented significant measures to reinforce governance, expand its investment reach, and leverage digital transformation to optimize operations.

“We remain focused on strengthening our financial base while enhancing our digital capabilities. The results achieved this year are a reflection of our commitment to building a sustainable and resilient financial ecosystem that delivers value to our shareholders and stakeholders,” Okpala said.

From my posts, you can extrapolate that I am a fan of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s Meta. But today, he surprised me. Yes, he went all over the world telling people that he would fire “low-performers” in his company. I mean Meta has all the rights to fire people, but trumpeting these “low performers” is totally unfortunate.

Meta began layoffs this week with the aim of eliminating low-performers, but several employees who were let go told Business Insider they were “blindsided,” saying they had received positive midyear reviews. Some voiced concerns about future job opportunities, given the layoffs were publicized as targeting underperformers. However, internal documents viewed by BI showed that higher performing employees would also be targeted if managers couldn’t meet workforce reduction goals with lower performers alone. – LinkedIn News

Sure – you can say “what is this village boy finding fault with how a billionaire runs his empire?” No issues. But even as billionaires, they need to think and care about people. These workers which have been tagged as “low performers” are possibly going to struggle to find new jobs because everyone now knows why Mark fired them. Typically, he could have framed this as restructuring because whatever metric he used to classify people as “low performer” is not physics! Yes, some were performing well even in Meta!

One of the things I learnt from the beloved Diamond Bank was that people could be great but the wrong job function could make them underperform. I saw how people who struggled in operations did very well when re-posted to marketing. Under the bank’s founder, the bank did not fire people anyhow, but reposted people for alignments. I knew of a lady who struggled in the treasury unit but who became a star marketer when reposted to a branch. Some workers struggled in Lagos but when reposted to outside Lagos, they did well. 

So, saying that someone is a “low performer” and trumpeting it to the whole world as you fire him or her is not not fair. 

A round of layoffs affecting about 3,600 workers is underway at Meta, with some affected employees receiving emails early Monday, Business Insider reports, citing anonymous sources. Meta had said in January that the redundancy would affect 5% of its workforce and target low performers, prompting speculation that the staffers might not receive severance. However, U.S. employees will receive at least 16 weeks’ salary, Bloomberg reports, also anonymously. Per USA Today, Meta will replace laid-off employees with machine learning engineers. – LinkedIn News

Europe goes for tons of money for the AI future as China, America, etc drop piles of money in the sector: “The European Union has launched the InvestAI initiative, aiming to mobilize €200 billion for AI development. This initiative, announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, seeks to position Europe as a global leader in AI. The funds will support the creation of AI gigafactories, equipped with advanced AI chips, and foster public-private partnerships.

“This strategy is part of a broader effort to enhance Europe’s competitiveness in AI against the US and China, focusing on industrial applications and ethical AI development. The initiative includes a €20 billion fund specifically for establishing four AI gigafactories across Europe, each with about 100,000 AI chips, highlighting a significant commitment to infrastructure development in AI technology.” – X

Africa: where is your plan?

This is what Africa should be concerned about MOST: an AI age where Africa has no presence in the production phase. African leaders must not fall on this armageddonic alarm because we saw how Germany, etc re-started coal plants when they could not get cheap energy from Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine. They did ot return to the stone age despite the crusade of climate warming.

Why Africa’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) Concerns Should Differ from the World’s