Worried about the seeming investor apathy bedeviling the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, in recent times, its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Temi Popoola has assured that the Exchange is already setting machinery in motion to boost the current retail investors’ participation that will attract 70 per cent domestic flow.
Popoola, who gave this assurance ahead of the NGX Capital Markets Conference in Lagos, admitted that the challenges facing the country in terms of infrastructure can be tackled headlong through the use of capital market instruments.
“Most countries have used their capital market to boost their infrastructure. The capital market is the appreciative way of resolving our infrastructural issue. For us at the Exchange, we want to push this narratives, let’s bring the capital market to the center of discuss. This is another tool we can deploy to address many of this challenges,” he stressed.
The NGX is billed to hold its inaugural Nigerian Capital Markets Conference on November 30, 2021.
Shedding more light on the planned confab, the NGX boss said, “The conference we have put together, Hosted as a hybrid event – physical and virtual – the conference will bring together policymakers, government, financial experts, business leaders, investors, international development partners, regulators and other market stakeholders, to share insights and broaden the thinking needed for greater capital flows through innovative sources of financing.”
Pressed further, Popoola said “This is going to be the first in its kind in the country. The event will address what the market can do for the government, private sectors and the future opportunities the market offers,” adding that “to drive and revive the capital market, we need government policy and some of the rules that govern the market today need to be reviewed.”
This is just as he informed that the current retail investors in the market are around 3 to 4 million, a figure low compared to the market potential even as he noted that the participation of the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) in the market leaves nothing to cheer about.
Echoing similar sentiments, the Divisional head, Trading Business, Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), Jude Chiemeka, added that the event will highlight on how investors and more importantly issuers can utilise the capital market to raise capital.
According to him, the government can focus on green bond, Sukuk in addressing the infrastructural gap.
He noted that the country has a lot of assets in the domestic economy that could actually be securitize which government can use to finance the infrastructural needs
“Our focus will also be around diversification of the capital market. The challenges we are having for a long time is that our market have a lot of international flows and each time we have global financial crises or forex as we are having now, the market takes a huge hit.
“The PFAs have an assets of over N30 billion and with proper development, we should be able to have like other markets control 70 per cent of domestic flows.”
Leave a Reply