Chams, eTranzact, CWG Swing from ₦2.4bn Loss to ₦9.18bn Profit in Five-Year Turnaround
In a striking turnaround that has captured the attention of investors and analysts across Nigeria’s capital markets, three legacy technology firms Chams Holding Company Plc, eTranzact International Plc, and Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG) transitioned from a combined ₦2.4 billion loss in 2020 to delivering a ₦9.18 billion profit after tax by 2025, marking one of the most remarkable financial reversals among listed ICT companies on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).
In 2020, the trio collectively reported a lackluster performance, with Chams posting a loss of ₦944.8 million, eTranzact losing ₦1.89 billion, and CWG narrowly turning a small profit of ₦443 million, resulting in a net aggregate loss of ₦2.39 billion.
Fast-forward five years, and strategic pivots, product diversification, and infrastructure-focused business models have transformed their financial fortunes. By 2025, their combined profit after tax surged to ₦9.18 billion on the back of a 209 % jump in combined revenues, underscoring a profound shift in operational focus and revenue drivers.
Chams’ turnaround was anchored in a decisive departure from its over-reliance on biometric verification services tied to government contracts, particularly Bank Verification Number (BVN) sales, which once accounted for nearly 38 % of revenue in 2020.
After losing its BVN revenue stream in 2023, Chams invested in local manufacturing, building a SIM card production facility that now churns out millions of SIMs monthly for major telecom operators. This strategic pivot to manufacturing and payments infrastructure elevated total revenue from roughly ₦2.1 billion in 2020 to about ₦17.5 billion in 2025.
Biometric and card production lines now drive the bulk of its income, with SIM and bank card production emerging as high-growth segments.
CWG’s remarkable run was propelled by a shift from being primarily a hardware reseller to becoming a core infrastructure provider for Nigeria’s banking sector. While in 2020, software and managed services represented just under 13 % of CWG’s revenue, by 2025 software solutions and backend systems had become central to its business, with significant contributions coming from partnerships that saw the rollout of the Finance core banking platform across major banks like GTBank, First Bank, UBA, and others.
This repositioning drove a dramatic expansion of revenues from ₦11.8 billion in 2020 to more than ₦65 billion five years later, cementing CWG’s role as a backbone provider of mission-critical enterprise technology in the financial services ecosystem.
eTranzact’s recovery focused on reducing its historical dependence on low-margin airtime sales — which once comprised over 90 % of its revenue — and emphasizing higher-value payments infrastructure and digital transaction services.
Although the company is still transitioning revenue mix away from airtime, this strategic shift enabled it to turn a ₦1.89 billion loss in 2020 into a multi-billion naira profit by 2025, supported by its growing presence in payments processing and government digital initiatives such as Nigeria’s evolving e-invoicing platform. The result is improved operational efficiency and a strong foothold in enterprise payments services.
The collective performance of Chams, CWG, and eTranzact reflects broader trends in Nigeria’s technology sector, where legacy firms that have successfully reinvented their business models are now capitalizing on demand for digital infrastructure, financial services technology, and domestically produced telecom components. Their share price movements on the NGX mirror investor confidence in these strategic shifts, with each firm posting significant gains over the period as profit trajectories turned decisively upward.
This turnaround narrative offers a compelling case study on how legacy tech companies in emerging markets can reverse entrenched losses by realigning toward infrastructure-centric offerings, diversifying away from low-margin products, and tapping into Nigeria’s expanding digital economy. In all, their journey from cumulative losses to sustained profitability provides both investors and industry observers with valuable insights into resilience, strategic pivoting, and growth discipline in a challenging economic landscape.
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