Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has posted a total revenue of N350 million for 2022, a record revenue drop from over N500 million in 2021 to N350 million in 2022.
ACCI president Almujtaba Abubaka said the annual income went down by N150 million because last year “we sold some of our assets (buildings) and that formed part of the reasons the profit for last year went up. This year we didn’t sell anything. We just relied on normal incomes of the chamber.”
Dr Abubaka made the disclosure at the 32nd annual general meting of the chamber in Abuja yesterday.
He disclosed that the net income of the chamber was also affected by the 20 percent increase in staff salaries to restore it to pre-COVID-19 era. “We must do that because we discovered that our staff are under paid. They have been with us for a very long time. We have to reward their loyalty.
“To do that, we made general increase in salary of almost 20 percent. We also looked into the deserving staff for promotion. By that, their salary package went up.
Abubaka disclosed that the chamber spent higher amount of money on foreign trips during the year to attend official engagements outside Nigeria to honour invitations from foreign embassies, chambers and organisations. Abubakar said the chamber is no longer a local one, saying there is an evidenced increase in its profile to international recognition. He said the chamber has also played host to many foreign envoys, which he said is a testimony to its new claimed international reputation.
Vice president (finance) Usman Bararabe said in terms of operations, the total income went up while it was also down in terms of income “because we had low donations because those who have been supporting us also suffered some economic downturn.”
He disclosed that the total assets of ACCI went up to N1.64 billion to N1.69 billion in the year under review.
In his opening remarks, Abubaka said his team has come up with a list of programmes for next in a bid to make more revenue for the organization. Among other things, ACCI hopeS to commence the construction of a second office complex at the mid front of the Chamber. He said the proceeds from sale of its 10 hectares of land would be invested in the project to increase revenue for the chamber.
The chamber is also proposing the construction of an ultra-modern market in an Abuja suburb to make more revenues.
Abubakar and his team plan to establish a better knowledge management system for the chamber. “This will leverage ICT systems to store and retrieve information and for process alignment,” he stated.
