The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Mr. Oscar Onyema, has said that to attract more companies to list at the Exchange and to retain a larger pool of investors at the minimum, the nation’s bourse will maintain stable and consistent policy regimes.
Onyema who said this yesterday in Lagos during the 12th annual business luncheon of the Capital Market Solicitors Association (CMSA) also explained that the NSE must uphold fair and orderly markets based on just and equitable principles that will generate and preserve issuer and investor confidence in the market.
He noted that the Exchange in a bid to attract more companies to list realised it must partner with policy makers to take full advantage of developmental initiatives which require massive mobilization of capital citing instance of sector-wide policies calling for recapitalization or consolidation by operators and other privatization/commercialization programmes in sectors such as telecommunications, extractive industries and so on.
Presenting his keynote speech on the theme, “Transformation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange into a World Class Exchange”, the NSE boss said that operating a fair and orderly market is at the heart of Exchange regulation and developing a sustainable investor protection framework has been a key pillar of its transformation journey. “A strong regulatory environment is essential to protecting investors against infractions and enhancing investor confidence in the market. To this end, the Exchange has ensured that it has clear and enforceable rules, with a zero tolerance policy on all infractions.
“ We have worked tirelessly to revise key rules for dealing members and issuers, and developed several new rules to create the much needed order, equitable treatment, efficiency and protection for all participants in our market”, he said.
Onyema explained that all of the initiatives the NSE delivered in the course of our transformation are aimed at developing a more transparent, liquid and accessible market with a modern market structure to support the delivery of a wider range of investment products.
“By engaging all our stakeholders; our investors, listed companies, market operators, the regulator, and prospective issuers who had lost faith in the capital market are now returning to the market, and we are beginning to witness a sense of optimism from all market stakeholders. To illustrate this point, the Average Daily Value traded (ADVT) was up approximately 4.74 per cent in 2012 at $17.5M, and 57.36 per cent in 2013 at $26M. Year to date 2014, we are tracking at $27.63M ADVT”.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman CMSA Mr. Uche Val Obi said Nigeria will be better positioned to achieve its economic and developmental goals if it has a world-class capital market.
He explained that the goal for the luncheon was for stakeholders from all segments of the capital market to find ways to speed up the NSE’s transformation.
Obi, who observed that the Exchange had carried out a lot of reforms aimed at deepening the capital market in terms of liquidity, depth and volume, said it still had some way to go to match exchanges in advanced economies.
He however called on companies especially the highly capitalized doing business in Nigeria to list on the nation’s Stock Exchange.
Source : SunOnline