Nigeria: NSE Plans Initiatives to Maintain Africa’s Investment Destination

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has expressed it readiness to introduce initiatives that will help position it as attractive listing and investment destination in Africa.

This, according to the NSE Chief Executive, Mr. Oscar Onyema, is in keeping with its unwavering commitment to solidify its leadership position as Africa’s foremost securities exchange.

Addressing journalists in a press conference, Onyema said the Exchange will focus on delivering several initiatives in support of its revised strategy within the year.

He listed some of the initiatives to include promotion of Nigerian capital market as an African hub for growth companies, attracting more domestic flows into the market; implementation of a more competitive price structure in conjunction with the regulator and other market participants; and intensifying its efforts towards developing a more sustainable market.

Speaking on the bearish trend that prevailed in the market in 2014, the NSE boss said: “The Nigerian capital market and the business of the stock exchange will always be impacted by shiÀÛLÝing economic trends and investor demands, however, achieving success through growth that creates value will increase the bourse’s ability to operate efficiently and profitably in the transient-advantage economy that has unfolded in Nigeria and around the world.”

“The effect of disruptive short-term market cycles can be reduced with the right market structure, a diverse set of products that perform well in different market conditions, and enabling policy that provides stability to the marketplace, and gives confidence to issuers and investors. Therefore, this will be the focus of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2015,” he added.

He assured that the Exchange will continue to provide a viable platform to support the financing and sustainable development of the real economy in support of the federal government’s reforms. “In order to achieve this potential, the fundamentals of the Nigerian economy will need to be restructured away from reliance on oil revenues. We intend to play our own part to facilitate this restructuring and call for greater support for the capital market as a real financing alternative to driving inclusive growth and job creation,” Onyema said.

Reviewing the market activities in the past year, he said that bearish sentiments prevailed in most commodities based economies including the Nigerian market in 2014, adding that the capitalization of listed equities retreated by 13.15 percent from N13.23 trillion to N11.49 trillion.

By Nkiruka Nnorom, The Vanguard, 18th February, 2015   Source: All Africa.com