Chams Plc, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous Financial Technology (Fintech) and digital payments solutions Group has transited into a holding company at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
The company formed 37 years ago has been restructuring as it eyes a unicorn status by 2024.
The company’s group managing director (GMD), Gavin Young, at a press conference held at the company’s head office in Lagos, said Chams Plc started the process in 2021 to meet requirements for the renewal and recapitalization of its Mobile Money and Switching payment licenses.
“Part of the requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was for Chams to change its listing to a non-operating holding company, which we have now successfully achieved. This change takes immediate effect and we will now be known as Chams Holding Company Plc”, Young said.
While speaking further on the change, the GMD noted that 2022 is a major year for the now Chams Holding Company, adding that, “Although the migration to a HoldCo was a major component of our Consumer-Africa-Digital (CAD) 2024 Unicorn vision, led by our founder and Chairman Sir. Demola Aladekomo and our esteemed Board of Directors in 2020, it was also mandated by the CBN, due to the fact that Chams Plc is the majority stakeholder in two major CBN payment licences via its subsidiaries ChamsSwitch Limited and ChamsMobile Limited.”
According to Young, “Listing as a Holding Company means that we are focussing on our existing subsidiaries and business assets to build shareholder value, whilst incubating and growing other businesses within our subsidiaries, and also creating new subsidiaries as part of the Holding Company structure.”
The Group has focussed primarily on growing its consumer and business digital payment solutions whilst also expanding other potential and current investments in the digital space, to ensure sustainable value for our stakeholders, the GMD stated, adding that, “All our businesses have returned improved performances, promising growth and good value, and we are working hard to ensure this continues.”
In her remark, the Managing Director, ChamsMobile Ltd, Mayowa Olaniyan disclosed that the fintech subsidiary recently recapitalised, positioning the company to roll-out its anticipated fintech products.
“In our concerted efforts to rapidly grow our financial inclusion services through Mobile wallets and agent financial services, ChamsMobile recapitalised to N2 billion acquired and implemented systems and operational infrastructure, and commenced the roll-out of our KEGOW Mobile Money wallets and financial agent services strategy towards being a leading mobile money fintech payments company, providing consumer and SME mobile digital payment services across Africa,” Olaniyan stated.
On his part, the managing director of ChamsSwitch Ltd, Emmanuel Ojo revealed that the switching subsidiary has made significant progress, which he attributed to a recent N2 billion recapitalisation. “Our primary focus is financial payments processing, B2B and B2C financial transactions and added-value financial services.
“Our growth in financial processing and payments switching businesses during 2021 has been very encouraging and we have seen a significant increase in Chams share value in the company. We have certified as an issuer processor for Union Pay International (UPI) and will soon commence UPI card processing for a major bank in Nigeria, Ojo explained.
Giving account of ChamsAccess’ market impact, the subsidiary’s Managing Director, Dumebi Obodo, stated that ChamsAccess introduced some new innovative digital solutions in 2021, whilst continuing to grow our strong legacy business lines.
“For example, through our new Pension Central digital platform, we have over 300 major customers on the platform and have processed over N4 billion in transaction value. Other digital solutions such as Argone and instant financial card issuance, have all experienced increased market penetration and promising growth.”
Drawing from the recent ban on importation of SIM card imposed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, chief operations officer, Card Centre Limited, Lekan Latona, expressed confidence in the opportunities that lies ahead in growing market share in the months to come.
“So far, we have expanded and diversified our business through international and local partnerships. We have installed significant additional SIM card production and personalisation infrastructure and have secured a major local contract. We have also introduced a new financial services card chip into the local market as part of our strategy to grow the financial card business. This will contribute to our improved performance and sustainable value for stakeholders,” Latona emphasised.
Chams claims it is the 20th most traded stock on the Nigerian Stock Exchange over the past three months (May 17 to August 16, 2022), trading a total volume of 186 million shares in 947 deals which is valued at N 45.8 million over the period, with an average of 2.95 million traded shares per session.
