VFD holds virtual AGM, announces key appointments

Shareholders of financial services company, VFD Group, have approved the payment of N3.30 kobo dividend for the 2019 business year at the Group’s 4th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and its first Open Virtual AGM (OVA), where key appointments to strengthen Group performance were also made.

The meeting was held via Zoom and live-streamed on YouTube in testament to the company’s transparency and following the social distancing rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The General Meeting approved, amongst other resolutions, the individual company, and consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year 2019.

The distribution of a dividend of N3.30 kobo per 50 kobo share with book closure date of May 1, 2020 and payment date of May 15, 2020 was also approved.

Nonso Okpala, GMD/CEO of VFD Group, said the 2019 performance has provided the foundation for VFD Group’s emergence as the leading investment company in Nigeria with interest in key sectors of the Nigerian economy.

“In 2020 and beyond, we will seek to integrate these companies in order to establish a value ecosystem for enhanced efficiency and compelling offering to over a hundred million Nigerians,” Okpala said.

He noted that the base of that ecosystem is its investment in VFD Tech and its recent launch of Nigerian’s #1 virtual bank, called V by VFD, which is available on the Apple App Store or Google PlayStore.

At the AGM, members approved the appointment of Chuks Ozigbo as a director of the company. Olatunde Busari, Suleiman Lawal, Azubike Emodi, Samuel Maduka Onyishi and Jewel Okwechime were also re-elected as directors.

The meeting further appointed Deloitte & Touche as external auditors of the company and approved the election of members of the Statutory Audit Committee.

The Board of Directors still comprises 13 members including five executive directors and two independent directors.

“VFD Group has shown its commitment to world-class governance and transparency by being the first public company to organise an Open Virtual AGM that accorded all shareholders an opportunity to vote,” said Olatunde Busari, group chairman VFD, noting 100 percent participation of all shareholders in the voting process.

“We strongly believe that our capital market and public companies will be better governed if every shareholder’s vote counts – every single vote,” he said in advocacy for compulsory polling in AGMs for public companies and the introduction of virtual voting to enable every shareholder cast his or her vote, regardless of geography.

VFD Group plc is a proprietary investment company with a vision to be a commercially viable investment company with global influence focused on building positive and socially conscious ecosystems. It has investment interest in banking, real estate, technology, hospitality, leasing, financial advisory, remittance and asset management.