This is a big year for us with the inauguration of
Academic City Univ Ghana. Providing high quality & innovative education has
been a passion and I am excited with the momentum the ACity team has built up
in this regard. The campus looks stunning and will be a special space for
higher education in West Africa.
2020 has also brought a lot of apprehension &
anxiety with corona virus (CV). While the first 6 months of 2020 looks like
there may be an impact, we can hope to expect recovery from CV by Q3. I urge
you to follow all procedures by your local governments and take all the
necessary precautions required. We can use the time to introspect how to
improve our internal processes & systems. Africa being supply chain
dependant, we should be mindful of our inventory and its appropriate
replacement. I urge all of you to be extra vigilant on your health, eat healthy
& keep immunity high.
Also big for us the, The Happiness Center project
we supported AOL to put up in Lagos, Nigeria. It’s going to be a beacon of
yoga, meditation & ayurveda and will address an important need.
I do hope the recent Peace deal in South Sudan will
stay and we can recoup some rents from our investments there. It doesn’t always
pay to be first mover. We should study the history & psychology of a nation
before we invest. This has probably been one of our worst investments.
Our investments in Agric processing in Eswatini and
South Africa will bear fruit this year and this will be a big shift for our
Group.
There’s also been new countries added to our list –
in the pharma distribution space. DRC in 2018 & Uganda in 2020, brings our
Pharma distribution network to 10 countries. This should be enough to give us
critical mass and width in this industry. We expect to triple business in next five
years in this space. Regulation with product registration is a huge impediment,
once we are over this – growth will be impressive.
We expect to complete construction of our
distribution center in Ghana by Q4 2020 and will embark on the extension of our
Exercise Book production and storage facility in Lagos by 2021. Vista Nigeria
also invested in a ball point pen manufacturing facility that starts in q3. All
in all, God willing we will have a strong asset and finance position by 2022 to
forge ahead in the coming years. I personally feel that Africa has had a
downturn last five years and we have done well to find ways to grow and are
ready to meet challenges & opportunities ahead.
This has been possible by the hard work & teamwork
of all of us. Let’s continue to stay focused and ahead of the curve, enjoying
the ride as well as making Vista Group a great place to be.
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