NOIC declares US$1m dividend to Mutapa fund
The National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) has declared a US$1,050 million dividend to the Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF) after performance exceeded expectations in 2022 in terms of volumes and product sales.
NOIC is among the 22 Government parastatals that were put under the Mutapa Fund, which is a generational fund for future and current generations.
Chairman Innocent Chiganze said in a media briefing after the company’s annual general meeting yesterday that the dividend declaration was a result of a solid performance by the company during the period under review.
“After successful deliberations in the meeting, we are happy to have declared a dividend, and we are going to be declaring more as performance will be enhanced by the ongoing expansion projects,” he said.
The company’s expansion projects include the capacity upgrade of the pipeline as well as the inclusion of liquid petroleum gas in the product portfolio.
The pipeline capacity upgrade project will culminate in the increase of the pumping capacity to 3 billion litres per year from the current 2,19 billion.
Mr Chiganze said the pipeline project is now at 70 percent completion, with the main pumps having been manufactured and being on high seas, and by the end of the first quarter, the upgrade will be complete.
“We are racing against time because our partners in Mozambique have completed theirs and are pumping at increased capacity.
“We also have the LPG gas project in Ruwa, which will start trading next week. We want to see security of petroleum products and gas, and in particular, stabilisation of prices and security of supply,” he said.
He added that NOIC also did the ethanol project, and the fuel blending is going well.
Mutapa Investment Fund chairperson Dr Chipo Mtasa said all companies under the fund are expected to declare dividends to create funds that can be invested further. “We are expecting all companies under Mutapa to declare a dividend that can be used to invest in more value for the fund, which will generate more for Zimbabwe and for the greater good of the whole country,” she said.
Mutapa chief executive Dr John Mangudya said the fund is expecting another dividend from NOIC, which is already working on the accounts for 2023.
“The fund is a generational fund for future and current generations and is supposed to have a long-term stabilisation effect in terms of having macro-economic stability,” he said.
He added that the fund would look after the 22 State enterprises to ensure good corporate governance under a synchronised monitoring system.
NOIC chief executive Mr Wilfred Matukeni said the company performed exceptionally well in 2022, and 2023 is expected to be much better, having already passed the 2 billion litre mark.
He said the company’s strategic focus was to ensure national security of supply and be the fuel distribution hub for Southern Africa by December 31, 2025.
According to the company’s annual report, the company pumped a total of 1,945 billion litres from January to December 2022, compared to a prior-year volume of 1,398 billion litres.
“The favourable performance for 2022 is attributable to a combination of high product availability for pipeline injections, increased transit volumes, high equipment availability throughout the entire system, and optimised pipeline operations.
“This cumulative increase in the use of pipelines is reflective of an increase in traders’ confidence in transporting their products through the pipeline,” said Mr Matukeni.
The annual total was distributed as 65,81 percent gasoil, 33,74 percent mogas, and 0,45 percent jet A1.
“The pipeline throughput mix is a close reflection of the annual domestic consumption pattern,” Mr Matukeni said.
For the year under review, revenue grew 527 percent to $168,024 billion, compared to $26,798 billion in the prior year.
Pipeline revenues for the year 2022 stood at $44,037 billion against a comparable prior-year figure of $8,278 billion.
According to Mr Matukeni, in 2022, the company, in collaboration with CPMZ, embarked on Project Cobalt, an initial project designed to encourage traders to transport fuel products to the hinterland markets through pipelines.
He said a rebate was offered on the pipeline tariff for all products destined for the hinterland markets.
“As a result, the volume of product transported through the pipeline for transit into the hinterland markets exponentially increased to a total of 270 million litres from paltry figures in prior years,” he revealed.