Q3 2023 Tingo Group Inc Earnings Call

Greetings and welcome to the single group third quarter 2000, <unk> financial results Conference call.

All participants are in a listen only mode. A question answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded before we begin the formal presentation I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include forecasts estimates or other information.

That might be considered forward looking while these forward looking statements represent our current judgment on the future calls they are not guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Cautions you not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as the date of this presentation. Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release the results any revisions peaceful statements in light of new information or future events throughout.

Today's discussion we will attempt to present, some important factors relating to our business.

All predictions you should also review our most recent Form 10-Q filed today and Form 10-K for a more complete discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading risk factors a press release detailing these results crossed the wires. This morning and is available in the <unk>.

Investor Relations section of the company's website single group Dot com.

Today tens did not single group co Chief Executive Officer will present, our results of operations for the quarter ended September 32023.

At this time I will turn the call over to single group Co Chief Executive Officer, and that's been US. Please go ahead.

Thank you operator, and good morning, everyone.

I am pleased to welcome you to todays third quarter 2023 financial results Conference call.

Despite the challenges we have encountered over the past few months, namely the short seller attack in June which had a negative impact on customer confidence the significant devaluation of Nigeria's currency following the lifting of certain foreign exchange restrictions.

Period of economic stagnation and high inflation in Nigeria. Following the government elections in February 2023, and subsequent change of presidential administration and May I am proud of our progress and achievements over the past three months and excited about our future prospects for the remainder of the year and beyond.

For those of you joining us for the first time I would like to take a moment to introduce single group.

<unk> group is a diverse inject an aggregate contract group of companies with operations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

We significantly expanded and somewhat transformed the company when we acquired 100% of Pingo model Limited on November 32022, and then acquired Jingle Foods plc on February seven 2023 before subsequently changing our name Coutinho Group, Inc. On February 27, two.

'twenty three.

As of today. The single group is comprised of the following businesses.

Single model, which is a leading fintech and accurate fintech business in Africa that operates through a device as a service and smartphone use SP platform model.

Female foods, which are fixed costs from sito mobile is substantial and growing customer base of farmers and processes those crops finished food and beverage products.

Bingo, DMC, which operate the commodity trading platform and export business from the Dubai, and multi commodity center and deals in both raw agricultural commodities from a single mobile farmers as well as finished food products from picking up foods.

Single pay a super App supported by a Pan African partnership with Pizza.

Following a soft launch at the beta version earlier this year single pay was launched as a full version on September 13th.

Single pay provides its customers with payment services and E wallet and a range of value added services.

It also offers a range of merchant services businesses.

We also have a number of fintech verticals that have to date been focused on the southeast Asia market.

However, as we focus on further increasing shareholder value and leveraging the most profitable and valuable parts of single group.

We are currently restructuring just part of the business and winding down or disposing of any operations, but did not achieve our target contribution metrics.

Most recently.

In partnership with Pakistan governments hybrid attuned.

Information Technology Board, we are preparing to rollout, our Agra fintech food processing and export businesses throughout Pakistan.

We believe that our group of businesses and the synergistic ecosystem. They create placed us in a remarkable position from which we can expand both in our current markets and internationally and deliver significant further growth.

Despite the challenges I mentioned earlier, we achieved year over year quarterly revenue growth and despite the decline in revenue and earnings in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. We have made significant progress with the further development of the business and we are confident that the fourth quarter, we'll see a return to growth.

What is important to note is that we've had to endure significant challenges and headwinds between June and September.

Not least because of a substantial devaluation of Nigeria is currency in June and a period of economic stagnation in Nigeria. Following government collections and subsequent change in presidential administration.

As mentioned in our second quarter trading update.

Noting the significant devaluation the Nigerian currency occurred as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria is removal of foreign exchange restrictions, which we believe will deliver significant long term benefits to our business, including the acceleration of the dollarization of our business and helping our export and commodity trading activities become more profitable.

Furthermore.

Once the policies of Nigeria, as new government have been fully implemented we expect nigeria's currency to appreciate and its economy to rebound strongly which should be markedly beneficial to the company and our shareholders.

Following completion of our acquisition of <unk> mobile on November 32022, we have been highly profitable notwithstanding the headwinds we noted above.

We have also achieved organic growth, including through our partnership with the all farmers Association of Nigeria known as <unk>.

This group is set to continue following the expected delivery in the fourth quarter of 2023 6 million smartphone handsets that we plan to distribute to new customers.

Our financial results highlights for the group as shown on this slide are representative of our strong financial performance since the completion of our acquisition of finger mobile on November 30 of 2022.

And our assessment of acquisition Athena Foods.

For the nine months ended September 32023, the company generated over $2 four $1 billion in revenue.

$878 million in gross profit.

$492 5 million in operating income and 779, $777 9 million in EBITDA.

Furthermore, our high levels of operational cash flow enabled us to invest $426 4 million in the quarter on the purchase of mobile phones for new customers as well as inventory payments for our <unk> export business.

As mentioned previously our reason why it can't go group is very important to us and those of you that have listened to or read our presentation, we'll most likely already be aware of our mission statements.

For those of you who are not familiar.

Our overarching mission that single group is to foster digital and financial inclusion through our fintech platforms and to drive social and economic uplift.

And our anchor Fintech businesses. Our mission includes our commitment to make a significant difference in improving global food supply and tackling the world's food security prices by delivering farmer impoundments improve crop yields.

And post harvest losses, and better access to both foreign and domestic markets.

At a regional level. We also aim to support farmers in Africa, and now Pakistan to achieve sustainable food self sufficiency, and bringing into Africa, as food and security and poverty.

By way of a recap we entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire single mobile on May 10 2022.

Following this we immediately appointed a team of some of the world's largest and most reputable professional advisors to undertake extensive due diligence and financial analysis.

The team included a big four accounting firm.

For one U S law firm in Africa, and the number one U S M&A investment bank.

We announced on June 15, 2022 that the due diligence exercise have been completed and the findings were positive.

The original merger agreement was amended and restated in October 2020 to facilitate the expedited acquisition of 100% of single mobile and the acquisition was subsequently completed on November 32022.

With the benefit of the Companys and single models collaboration the fourth quarter of 2020 to Mark the beginning of the geographic Alex It geographical expansion of T mobile with the opening of offices in Ghana.

And Dubai.

The fourth quarter also saw US launch the single D&C commodities trading platform and export business and the soft launch of the beta version of the <unk> PE Super App in partnership with visa.

By January 2023, we began to pivot the company's insurance and Fintech verticals to better complement the tingle businesses with the goal of leveraging its already established brands and large customer base.

Then on February seven 2023, we acquired the single food food and beverage processing business to further strengthen the tingle seed to sale ecosystem.

Also on February 27, 2023, we changed our corporate name and ticker symbol to better reflect the importance of the single brand for the business and to provide improved clarity to our external stakeholders, including current and perspective partners customers and investors.

Our reporting our full year 2020 to financial results on March 31, 2023, which followed in April by the announcement a single mobile is exclusive partnership with <unk> and <unk>.

On May 30, we completed our first commodity export trade tutino DMC, marking a major milestone in our strategy to ultimately dollarized the company's net earnings.

On August 31, we announced the commencement of a quarterly dividend payable to the holders of both our common stock and series B convertible preferred stock.

And the adoption of a dividend policy.

The foreign exchange conversion for the payment of the first dividend, which is in the amount of $20 million is expected to be approved by the central Bank of Nigeria, which we expect to receive very soon.

Most recently, we executed a memorandum of understanding with <unk> to.

Information technology board or <unk> to launch and rollout of the company's business and service offerings into Pakistan.

<unk> is a governmental body established in the province of the Congress by two o'clock, Pakistan for the promotion of information technology for the public and private sector.

By way of a recap and update on our single mobile business that was down to some 23 years ago.

We began with a single module business as a service model and then Wassa Uff's the Fintech platform, which we believe is the leading Agra Fintech platform in Africa.

Following the signing of our updated definitive merger agreement in October of 2022, we set about accelerating our growth strategy.

November and December of 2022, we signed trade agreements with two major partners with the aim of expanding sito mobile's customer base from $9 3 million to an expected $30 million.

We signed a trade partnership with the all farmers Association of Nigeria, which included a commitment to enroll a minimum 20 million new customers single mobile.

We also launched in Ghana, and signed a trade agreement with the Kingdom of Xiaomi.

Which included a commitment to enroll a minimum of 2 million new customers Sito mobile.

And the target Gulf enrolling more than 4 million new customers overall.

Soon afterwards, we launched into Malawi and have made progress towards several trade partnerships there with the goal of establishing a base for rollout in the future across the east Africa, including into Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia.

Looking further ahead, we plan to expand in the future and do other parts of Africa, as well as into Asia and other relevant markets in the world.

Through our other businesses within the single family Nagel, namely <unk> foods and single B and C. We aimed to increase uptake in demand for produce from Sangamo those customers.

Thereby creating a virtuous self reinforcing cycle.

In April 2023 is part of the further strengthening of our ecosystem single mobile entered into a tripartite agreement with PC accident.

Which we will discuss in more detail shortly.

Lastly, as we look to expand the reach of our in what's a marketplace platform. We are making good progress in testing and further developing the forthcoming wassa web platform and the Wassa App, which we intend to launch before the end of the year to complement the already successful U S. S. The GSM platform.

<unk> Foods was acquired by the group on February seven 2023.

This is a business that <unk> has been developing independently of Finjan mobile.

<unk> Foods was launched as a Standalone company in September of 2022, focusing on supplying a relatively small range of products to several large distribution and wholesale businesses.

Single fluids is already creating significant demand an offtake for kingdom all those farmers.

At the same time, creating supply for single B, mcc's commodity trading and export business.

In the first eight months of trading since we acquired <unk> Foods plc in February 2023, the business has generated revenue.

116 billion and delivered an operating profit at $427 1 million.

As mentioned previously the U S dollar equivalent of the revenue and earnings Athena foods with adversely impacted <unk> impacted by the significant devaluation of Nigeria's currency against the U S. Dollar and June 2023, when the Central Bank of Nigeria removes certain foreign exchange restrictions.

We believe that these actions will ultimately be beneficial for the company, providing a true measure of the actual exchange rate between the two currencies and ultimately helping to accelerate the dollarization of the business.

The Tingle foods business was also adversely affected by the economic disruption in Nigeria and suite around the time of the change in presidential administration, which resulted in several customers delaying orders.

Single Foods is set to multiply capacity in revenue with a new state of the art $1 6 billion food processing facility and the Delta state of Nigeria.

Our joint venture construction partner has confirmed that the project is on track to enable single foods to commence processing operation on site in 2024.

We believe Africa's farmers and agricultural sector will benefit from the significant expansion of the continent, its own processing capabilities, increasing crop demand, reducing post harvest losses ensure ensuring fair selling prices for farmers and delivering financial uplift.

In December 2022.

We launched <unk>, which is an agricultural commodity platform and export business in partnership with the Dubai multi commodity center MCC.

As part of the Tango ecosystem singled the FCC is already becoming a significant source of offtake raw crops from single mobile as farmers and is also expected to be a major customer could single foods in the future as it looks it looks to export their finished food and beverage products.

Having spent several months working with <unk> and their farmers on the aggregation of both volumes of Proteus. We completed our first export trade on May 32023, and delivered $668 million of export revenue and a five months to September 32023.

Due to the farmers of Nigeria, which are estimated to total around $60 million and with the addition of Ghana, Malawi and now Pakistan as well as certain other territories in the future. We have access to several billion dollars per annum of agricultural produce for our export business.

Furthermore, our exclusive partnership with <unk>, an iPad, which strengthens our supply chain and goods handling capabilities and gives us priority access to the PC X commodity trading platform is already proving to be valuable as we develop the business and build a strong foundation.

The <unk> export business as expected the dollar wise and globalize <unk> growth while at the same time, providing kingdom, all those farmers and Tingled foods direct access to international markets.

On April 26, it was announced that single mobile I partner with Tcs and <unk> for the exclusive use of outbound existing network at 2322 warehouses across Nigeria for a minimum term of 30 years.

We believe this strategic partnership uniquely positions <unk> to monetize nigeria's crop ecosystem across its population of $213 million and the global export market.

Under the terms of the agreement Cheetah mobile has the right of first refusal to purchase or trade any of their produce stored in the up on warehouses.

<unk> intends to use primarily to serve the <unk> foods food processing business and the tango DMC commodity trading and export business.

<unk> has installed its leading edge E warehouse receipt system and all of the partnerships warehouses innate.

Enabling crops and other produce to be Commoditized and traded by chain go from the data delivery.

<unk> mobile is also to be granted a priority position on the <unk> commodity trading platform.

Enabling pinot D&C trade farming produce and other commodities on the spot futures physical and on the derivative basis.

I found the umbrella body for Nigeria farming sector has committed to coordinate all its agricultural cooperatives and members to utilize the partnership's warehouses to handle their produce.

In addition, the partnership has committed to a targeted increase in the number of warehouses to 80000 in the next few years.

Yeah.

Speaking of mobile also has the right to sublet the warehouse space to preapproved third parties, such as ecommerce businesses and wholesale businesses.

As mentioned previously this partnership with <unk> is expected to considerably increase our offtake of crops and other programs from farmers, which we believe will help to satisfy the substantial future input requirements of our food processing and commodity trading and export business.

Accordingly, the agreement also further augment our seed to sale model, helping us to achieve our objectives of reducing post harvest losses and crop wastage, while also increasing food production levels and meaningfully improving food security.

For those of you joining us for the first time single pay the full version of which was launched on Android and iOS and September of this year is a super App.

Offers a range of value added services in partnership with visa.

Such services include a digital visa card.

At payment services marketplace ecommerce insurance and finance.

As a full market D to C and b to be offering the single pay Super App and visa partnership is helping us to diversify and expand <unk> group into new sectors will.

With the aim of making paint obey and Tango household names is widely recognized that thesis itself.

To assist us in achieving market penetration our Pan African partnership with visa includes the provision of marketing and customer acquisition support.

Smes and all business sectors will benefit from our new range of Pingo, <unk> merchant services and the single pay business portal and our small holder pharma customers will see significant additional advantages through the integration of single pay with our neulasta aggregate marketplace platform.

The <unk> business portal and single visa merchant services enabled subscriber farmers and businesses in all sectors to easily and securely except payments and connect online transactions in their domestic or foreign currencies as well as to manage the cars the recurring payments and access transaction statements.

With the full version launch in September we continue to develop new features including the addition of new functions and several new value added services that will appear in future versions.

<unk> mobile Wassa single pay single foods and signaled the MCC, we have created a full agro tec agro fintech ecosystem, which is at the heart of our business.

Do you communicate with and push services to our farmers through the smartphone handsets, we supply to them.

Farmers can venues nuanced that the purchase of inputs for their farming business the purchase other services to make payments and sell that produce.

Pingo fluids forms an important part of the ecosystem as both a valuable potential customer and source of offtake for Cheetah Mobile's farmers.

Assessing your raw crops into finished food and beverage products.

Finally, Tim.

<unk> is in a position to trade and export both the raw crops. The tingle Mobile's farmers and the finished food and beverage beverage products that single foods, which is able to sell into a global market where demand significantly outstripped supply.

This already strong seed to sale ecosystem is now strengthened further by the recently signed deal between single mile Global Tcs and <unk> as the partnership provides us access to a substantial nationwide network of warehouse facilities as well as securing a considerable increase in protos supply.

And offering enhanced commodity trading opportunities.

And so the tango ecosystem creates a reinforcing loop of financial and digital inclusion alongside an increase in food supply and a reduction in post harvest losses, which in turn improve food security and reduce food poverty.

Ultimately these factors deliver financial and social uplift them not only to our farmers, but also to all of our stakeholders.

At the center of everything we do our core values and our commitment to our environmental social and governance goals.

We foster digital and financial inclusion through our technology platforms, driving the social and economic uplift none of our customers.

We meaningfully improved the global food supply and help tackle the world's food security crisis by empowering the farmer, helping them to increase crop yields reduce both forex losses gain from improved access to markets and benefit from fair prices.

Our technology and platforms also deliver significant environmental benefits.

<unk> crop wastage, improving farmery farming, and food production efficiency promoting sustainable farming techniques and reducing freight miles.

As part of our commitment towards the environment and social uplift meant we are focused on adopting a mature ESG framework.

<unk> guided by the United Nations Sustainable development goals.

Turning to our third quarter 2023 financial results as reported in this morning's 10-Q filing which I am pleased to present.

A full breakdown of our financial results is available in our regulatory filings and in the press release that crossed the wire earlier this morning.

Now turning to some of the key figures.

Net revenues for the three months ended September 32023 were $586 1 million compared to $13 8 million for the three months ended September 32022, an increase of 4161%.

Net revenues for the nine months ended September 32023 were $2 41 billion compared to $35 3 million for the nine months ended September 32022, an increase of 6740%.

The increase was mainly attributable to the addition of the team for mobile and single Foods acquisitions completed on December one 2022, and February nine 2023, respectively, and the commencement of export trades through Tingled D&C in May 2023.

Gross profit for the three months ended September 32023 was $137 9 million or 24% of revenue compared to $3 2 million or 23% of revenue.

For the three months ended September 32022.

Gross profit for the nine months ended September 32023 was $870 8 million or 36% of revenue compared to $6 5 million or 19% of revenue for the nine months ended September 32022.

The increase is mainly attributable to the addition of the single mobile and single Foods acquisitions completed on December one 2022, and February 19, 2023, respectively, and the commencement of export trade <unk> in May 2023.

Selling and marketing expenses for the three months ended September 32023 were zero point $7 million as compared to $1 3 million for the three months ended September 32022.

Selling and marketing expenses for the nine months ended September 32023 were $174 9 million as compared to $4 9 million for the nine months ended September 32022.

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 32023 were $75 9 million compared to $9 2 million for the three months ended September 32022.

General and administrative expenses for the nine months ended September 32023 were $127 9 million compared to $30 2 million for the nine months ended September 32022, mainly attributed to the addition of costs from T mobile and <unk> foods.

Operating profit for the three months ended September 32023 was $50 1 million versus an operating loss of $8 7 million for the three months ended September 32022.

Operating profit for the nine months ended September 32023 was $492 5 million versus an operating loss of $32 5 million for the nine months ended September 32022.

The increase being mainly attributed to the acquisitions of <unk> mobile and single foods and the commencement of export trade <unk> as explained above.

Net income for the three months ended September 32023 was $20 7 million compared to a net loss of $7 7 million for the three months ended September 32022.

Net income for the nine months ended September 32023 was $2 94.0 million compared to a net loss of $30 7 million for the nine months ended September 32022.

Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended September 32023 was $122 6 million compared to consolidated EBITDA loss of $8 1 million for the three months ended September 32022.

Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months ended September 32023 was $777 9 million compared to consolidated EBITDA loss of $29 3 million for the nine months ended September 32022.

<unk> group invested heavily in the growth of single model single Foods and <unk>. During the nine months ended September 32023, including one <unk>.

Making an upfront payment of $711 7 million on the purchase of 6 million handsets for new outbound customers.

Number two prepaying ethane for produce for <unk> foods and settling their brought forward payables, resulting in a total net outlay of $369 9 million and third self funding stock purchases of $370 4 million for <unk> export sales the revenues for which are scheduled to be received during the fourth.

Quarter of 2023.

In addition tax payments totaling $174 million were made for T. Mobile on its taxable earnings for fiscal year 2022, and the company also incurred a loss on foreign exchange.

As a result, the balance of cash and cash equivalents at September 32023 decreased to $53 4 million.

Compared to $500 million at December 31, 2022.

In August we announced the commencement of a quarterly dividend payable to the holders of both our common stock and series B convertible preferred shares.

Foreign exchange conversion for the payment of the first dividend, which is in the amount of $20 million.

Exchange conversion is subject to approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Finalization of which is expected soon.

Our goal is to increase the amount of the quarterly dividend as we grow our earnings and cash balances.

The summary of the income statement a single group for the three months and nine months ended September 32023, compared to September 2022 is provided on page 15 of the presentation.

Okay.

A reconciliation of GAAP operating income and loss to the non-GAAP EBITDA for the three and nine months ended September 32023, compared to September 2022 is provided on page 16 of the presentation.

A summary of the most notable investment in cash cash expenditure items made by the company during the three and nine months ended September 32023 is provided on page 17 of the presentation.

The key cash expenditure items incurred during the third quarter included further naira installment payments made to our mobile phone supplier totaling $279 million.

A corresponding order of smartphones has been allocated to 6 million new customers introduced by the all farmers Association of Nigeria, our ethane.

Under the terms of our trade agreement with App on on October 22022.

The smartphones will be held as fixed assets of the company and are expected to generate monthly mobile leasing revenues and Wassa transaction revenues during the fourth quarter of 2023.

The other main cash expenditure item, which incur we incurred during the third quarter was the naira payment of $147 million for produce for a single <unk> export business.

The receipt for all our export sales made in the third quarter are scheduled to receive in the fourth quarter of 2023.

A summary of the balance sheet highlights as provided on page 18 of the presentation.

A summary of the income statement Athena group for the three and nine months ended September 32023, compared to the three and nine months ended September 32022 is provided on page 19 of the presentation.

My Board and I believe Pingo group continues to be uniquely and strongly positioned both as a company and as an attractive investment proposition.

We are a highly profitable NASDAQ listed company.

Having generated revenue of $2 41 billion and EBITDA of $777 9 million in the first nine months of 2023.

We have a strong balance sheet and our operations are significantly cash flow positive.

We announced the commencement of a quarterly dividend the first payment of which is awaiting central bank of Nigeria approval.

We have a full acura and food ecosystem from seed to sale, creating a virtuous cycle for both us and our customers.

Our food processing and commodity export business has vast potential.

We are making a difference towards addressing the global food shortage and food security crises, and we are a benefactor of commodity price inflation.

Our visa Tango partnership and single pay Super App are well positioned to expand.

Significantly into new BDC and <unk> markets.

We have proven proprietary fintech platforms, which are replicable in new geographical markets and new sectors.

We have a vast addressable global market, including a new and significant opportunity in Pakistan.

We believe that we have a significant ESG impact that can grow considerably further in the future.

My Board and I believe single group continues to be uniquely and strongly positioned both as a company and as an attractive investment proposition.

We are a highly profitable NASDAQ listed company, having generated revenue of $2 41 billion and EBITDA of $777 9 million in the first nine months of 2023.

We have a strong balance sheet and our operations are significantly cash flow positive.

We announced the commencement of a quarterly dividend the first payment of which is awaiting central bank of Nigeria approval.

We have a full acura and food ecosystem from seed to sale, creating a virtual cycle for both us and our customers.

Our food processing and commodity export business has vast potential.

We are making a difference towards addressing the global food shortage and food security crises, and we are a benefactor of commodity price inflation.

Our visa tangled partnership and single pay Super App are well positioned to expand.

Significantly into new BDC and <unk> markets.

We have proven proprietary fintech platforms, which are replicable in new geographical markets and new sectors.

We have a vast addressable global market, including a new and significant opportunity in Pakistan.

We believe that we have a significant ESG impact that can grow considerably further in the future. Thank.

Thank you.

Operator, my colleagues at <unk> are now ready to take questions from participants.

Can you expand on the reason for the decrease in the Wassa revenue during the quarter and do you see this as temporary.

And once we generate this revenue through the transactions made by our farmers.

These farmers using Watson to purchase farming inputs to notify us they approached to sell you access a range of services, such as bill payments micro finance and insurance.

Unfortunately, the negative press we received in June was picked up in Nigeria, including in the newspapers and other media that is distributed into the rural parts of the country.

And then what's a platform just like any commercial platform is based on trust.

And these farmers want to know that their transactions will go through in that their money is safe.

So unfortunately, the negative press created a significant amount of fear and lack of confidence in our farmers, which resulted in a slump of transaction volume and revenue.

Thankfully, we've been able to work with the cooperatives and what's happened since to restore customer confidence, which is having a major positive impact.

Also as you may have seen in our recent press release Alpine which is the umbrella organisation for the entire farming industry of Nigeria has now adopted us as their exclusive agricultural platform.

And they are also increasing the promotion and support towards us.

With all of the steps we have taken we expect to resume the growth rates were enjoying prior to the short seller attack additional to which we should benefit from the step up in revenues and earnings from both Wassa and mobile leasing when our 6 million new phones are deployed 6 million new customers in December.

Revenue for <unk> foods, just slightly compared to the second quarter what was the reason for this.

Being a food, which was also affected by negative press not so much in relation to our customers, but very much still in relation to the farmers that suppliers.

On the supply side, our farmer has to be able to trust that we will pay them for the crops, we produce and unfortunately their confidence decreased when they saw the negative press.

Again, thankfully with the support of the cooperatives and the App and we have made good headway in restoring the competence of the farmers to sell their products to us.

And we expect to be back to the levels of supply that we enjoyed prior to the short seller attack.

Now, it's worth noting that Pinnacle foods also suffered from.

From seasonality in July and August when the level of crop being harvested drops significantly.

This factor combined with the drop in supplier confidence towards us had a real impact.

I am pleased to say however that was the rebound we experienced some supply levels together with our sales outlook for the next few months, we're confident of a strong into the year and that we can achieve healthy growth thereafter.

You previously mentioned the Shingo VLCC export business was expected to generate around $1 billion of revenue during the quarter, whereas your actual export revenue was around one third of this where orders delayed or did you suffer cancellations.

Again for the reasons mentioned in my previous two answers our export business. Unfortunately suffered from both order postponements in order cancellations in the third quarter in particular from the new customers. We've just started to deal with.

Theres not only resulted in a considerable loss of revenue and earnings for us in the third quarter, which we hope to catch up over the coming months, but it also delayed the dollarization of our business in fact much of postponed or canceled business was set to be transacted in U S dollars and other primary currencies.

Notwithstanding the challenges we have faced I am pleased to say that we are seeing strong signs of recovery in our operations.

And we expect to be back on track by year end.

And I believe in a great position to have a strong 2024.

You have an update regarding the delivery and deployment of the 6 million smartphones you ordered in Q2.

And that you have made sizable payments against in both Q2 and Q3.

Yes, we are scheduled to receive delivery of the 6 million devices from our supply partner by the end of in November with their deployment through App and immediately thereafter.

So we expect to receive and generate lease revenue as well as transaction revenue through the nuance of platform from these devices by year end 2023.

With an uplift in mobile phones with more than 60% to be followed by outbound commitment to introduce a further 13 million customers as well as our expansion plans for Ghana, allowing in Pakistan. We're excited about our growth prospects for 2024 and beyond.

Can you provide an update on the status of construction of your new food processing facility.

Some as you know some of our executive management team and members of the media visited the site in June this year and we are now planning a further media visit to take place around year end or early in the new year.

We can confirm that our construction joint venture partner is on track and we remain confident we will be in a position to commence operations at least in phase one of the facility by 2024.

Is there an update on the dividend that you announced in August.

We are working closely with our banks in Nigeria, as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria to receive the foreign currency conversion approval as soon as possible.

Some of you will be aware, we had hoped to receive this approval long before now however, the new process and all Nigeria as companies must follow have proven to be more complex and elongated than originally envisaged.

And I'm pleased to say that the approval is expected very soon.

Are you considering an increase in the requested FX conversion to cover our second dividend payment rather than having to go through this all over again immediately.

With our current foreign exchange conversion application at an advanced stage, we don't wish to risks, causing any disruption or further delayed by changing the amount.

Our intention is therefore to obtain the approval of our current application before then submitting a new application for a larger amount.

It is our understanding that the approval process for subsequent foreign exchange conversions will be more straightforward than has been the case for this first conversion.

We also expect the approval timeline to be much shorter.

It has been mentioned in previous announcements that the board, we're considering a share buyback or a one off special dividend. In addition to the quarterly dividend is this still the case as I personally believe this would help rebuild shareholder confidence.

Yes. This is generally still the case.

As we noted in our presentation. We are optimistic about the company's continued growth development and cash flows from operation.

And we expect to be in a position to carry out some form of a special dividend as well as paying a regular quarterly dividend in the future.

When will the a credit rating in Nigeria he restores.

We have recently commenced interactions with the credit agency to restore our credit rating.

As part of which we are providing with up to date information.

We hope to receive the restoration of our credit rating either by the end of this year or during the early part of 2024.

You recently announced plans to expand into Pakistan, and an Mou with the government of Pakistan. It sounds like a very big opportunity can you provide any further information.

Yes, we believe it is a big opportunity here is just some key points to consider.

Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world by population the.

The country represents one of the largest agricultural markets in the world.

But at the same time, Pakistan suffers from low crop yields and very high levels of post harvest loss.

And if we can effectively deploy our business model. The pingo model in the <unk> ecosystem is expected to have a significant impact on Pakistan agricultural sector and add considerable value.

In addition, we are receiving significant support from the Pakistan government, both at the provincial level and the federal level, which we believe will help our rollout.

As well as rolling out our aggregate Fintech business in Pakistan, We also intend to launch our food processing and export business in the country.

Where again it is evident there is a significant need.

Are you any closer to finding a permanent industry, leading Nasdaq experienced CEO.

We've been evaluating and have had informal discussions with highly qualified individuals in this regard.

No offers a formal decisions have yet been made but we're making good progress on that point.

This concludes the question and answer session I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. <unk> for his closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Thank you operator, I would like to thank each of you for joining our earnings conference call today and look forward to continuing to update you on our ongoing progress and growth.

If we were unable to answer any of your questions. Please reach out to our IR firm MZ group, who would be more than happy to assess.

Thank you. This concludes our session for today you may now disconnect.

[music].

Yes.

[music].