AFSCMS records N178.157m
| The Airport Fire & Safety Co-operative Multipurpose Society (AFSCMS) recorded a total of N178,157,325.15 in 2021 as against N105,215,550.01 of 2020. The Hospitality/Guesthouse operations returned 48% (N86,293,970.00) of this total income in 2021. The Society returned a trading Surplus of N51,077,622.74 with Members’ Dividend as N30,000,000.00 in 2021 financial year compared to N46,983,369.59 and N27,170,000.00 respectively of 2020. Sales of commodities (both consumables and non consumables) in 2021 recorded a total sum of N124,311,718.13 compared to the N30,368,120.41 of 2020. Executive President of the Co-operative,Alhaji Sadiq Saheed stated this while giving his report at the Annual General Meeting of the Organisation which took place at the premises of the Murtala Muhammed School at Lagos Airport. He said that the initiative of the weekly emergency interventions for members, an average of 2.5m – 3m, apart from the normal monthly loan and final withdrawal payments, came to the fore in the heat of the Covid 19 crisis. According to Sadiq Saheed Anako, membership strength of the society recorded a decline for certain obvious reasons. Apparently due to both cases of statutory retirement and voluntary withdrawal of membership by members. “These cases are well established as the slogan still remains “Free Entry Free Exit.” There is no compulsion in the cooperative membership. The voluntary withdrawal of membership is of greater concern to us because some members are still not aligned with the provision of the regulations statutorily established by the authorities in our operational guidelines.” “Accessing savings as part-withdrawal is discouraged in the bye-law. But this is a source of grievance to some members leading to closure of accounts. There are also cases of members making savings without taking loans due to some personal reasons.” Sadiq explained that most times members in this category always emphasized on the strictness of this regulations as applicable to them “The management is hereby imploring our regulators here present to throw some light in this regards. Application of the principle of regulations catching up with innovation might be considered.” “In the wisdom of Management Committee, there is currently a provision to accommodate the members exiting the service by statutory retirement as Associate Members through shares subscriptions. This platform provides such members a relevance in dividend benefits from the Society‘s investment. This is a life time investment and it is transferable to your next of kin. Membership drive is a continuous process.” “If we can recall vividly from the last Annual General Meeting, a prayer was made before the teeming members concerning the issue of Shares Subscription which has a statutory backing of the bye-laws(5,000 whole shares @#2.00/share) which is minimum.” He said that in line with the investment exploits of the Society,the proceeds from the existing Guesthouse has been reinvested to acquire the adjoining structure for expansion purpose. “This rare opportunity came up and we went for it. The objective is to develop the new place as a twin structure with more rooms and facilities available to sale inclusive of an improved parking space.” “The Shares subscription comes handy in the effective management of this guesthouse expansion project. This is an all important project that will generate a return on investment for the members as dividend if the shares subscription by members is adopted and encouraged.” “The modality we are proposing is to be implemented by deductions at source for all the members for a specific duration. We have in our midst, a seasoned, very experienced, a versatile speaker and subject matter expert on Shares and Investment in the Cooperative System. He will be invited shortly as the meeting progresses to sensitize us.” Training,he said is a statutory responsibility of the Society to its members,saying “Conference, workshops, retreats, pre retirement, cooperative college etc. In line with the Management’s roadmap, this was observed to the latter as much as the budget and time factor permitted.” “Hundreds of members benefited from this. Concerning the regional execution of training as proposed, efforts are still being made to implement this to give sense of belonging to members outstation for equity and justice”,he said. “Before the bye-laws every cooperator is equal. The management hereby appeal to our esteemed members to exercise restraint as everyone can not be nominated at the same time for training. In due course it will go round.” . |
