Mr Paul Jegede

By Daniels Ekugo

The company held its Annual General Meeting on 29th June, 2020 at Japaul House where the Company’s 2018/2019 financial year and change of name from Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc to Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc to reflect the new business focus from Oil and Gas servicing sector into natural resource management, specifically the exploration, mining, processing and export of minerals, such as gold, lithium, etc., were approved.

With the constant change and decline in the oil and gas climate, Japaul has remained committed and proactive in its efforts to bring value to its shareholders which necessitated the diversification from the company’s core business as the company believes these natural resources are a viable substitute for oil, as necessitated by oil prices which have been nosediving even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The mining of these natural resources is not only profitable, it is without any negative impact on the environment.

Already, Japaul, a three-time Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) award winner has acquired mining and exploration licenses through buy-overs for the exploration, mining and exportation of gold, lithium, copper, tin, lead and zinc across seven (7) states in Nigeria where strategic minerals have been discovered in commercial quantities and reserves. The company has also started a kickoff of landmark restructuring and transitioning to become Nigeria’s first indigenous publicly quoted company in that space.

Mr Paul Jegede stated during the AGM, “since the diversification, Japaul’s finances have yielded positive financial outlook for the company and its shareholders. For instance, from our 2018 financial year, N7.4billion turned to N40billion profit in 2019; the shareholders fund turned from N35billion negative to N4.6billion in 2019 financial year end while earning per share turned from N105 negative in 2018 to positive N653 in 2019”.

By the approval of the shareholders’ under the company chairman, Mr. Paul Jegede, the shareholders passed the resolution to reconstruct all existing ordinary shares of 6,000,000,000 and/or increase in authorized share capital to 60,000,000,000 shares and subsequent public offering through combination of book building and/or public offer to raise $70m naira equivalent through all possible legitimate means to finance the completion of expanded explorations; mining activities; mineral processing; export; engineering design; procurement; installation of a Gold processing plant and working capital, amongst others.

According to the Group Managing Director, Mr Akin Oladapo, the diversification is as a result of the company’s five-years company growth forecast, “we had the foresight that the situation of the oil and gas sector would not improve for a long time, which is the case today. We started training ourselves in mining related businesses and the rest is history. We have bought mining and exploration licenses for Gold, Lithium, Lead, Copper, Tin, Zinc etc., which our company will be working with.

We already have Canadian expatriates that have been doing explorations works for us – MATRIX GEOTECH in Toronto, Canada. Our strategy is to start mining gold as from 2021 to 2022 while exploration works continue on other licenses that we have,” Mr Akin Oladapo concludes.

With this new business focus, Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc is already positioned strategically for the supply of the Oil of tomorrow to international markets which have unlimited demand as the world makes a more mineral-intensive transition from fossil fuel to low-emission energy and from the industrial revolution era to the use of more advanced technologies.