The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oscar Onyema

  • Photo: IPF media parley in Lagos

    Photo: IPF media parley in Lagos

  • Tourism development workshop 2014 holds in Lagos

    Tourism development workshop 2014 holds in Lagos

    The Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation in conjunction with International Style Week Limited, a Lagos-based emerging markets consultancy, will hold a tourism development workshop in Lagos from May 14 to 15, 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Victoria Island. Other collaborators in this workshop include the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Diplomacy (CTCD) of the Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies (ICCS), Lagos.

    Addressing a press conference recently at the S & S Hotel, Victoria Island,     the Chief Executive Officer, International Style Week and Programme Coordinator, Mr. Bassey Essien, revealed that the workshop will bring together over 500 delegates from the 36 states of the federation. The delegates would include policy makers, captains of the hospitality sector, thespians, elected officials, practitioners in the creative industries and tourism consultants.

    He added that the Minister of Tourism, Chief Edem Duke, will give the keynote address at the workshop. The workshop in Lagos will precede the Abuja presidential summit on tourism that will take place in July 2014. The Abuja summit will chart the course for revamping the tourism sector in Nigeria. Delegates for the workshop may register at: www.tifnigeria.com

    Notable speakers at the workshop include Mr Oscar Onyema, the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Dr. Austin Tam-George, a former lecturer at the University of Cape Town and Executive Director of the Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies (ICCS), Lagos.

    Other speakers include Dr. Julaine Rigg, Dr. Kweku Asante Darkor, Dr Abdul Lamin, Mr Olufemi Talabi, Chairman, Citilodge Hotels; Jennifer Williams Baffoe, UK-based Fashion Consultant; and Mr Uzo Nwankwo and many others.

  • Stakeholders urge supports for West African capital market integration

    • Integration opens up N187tr regional market to companies, investors

    The integration of the capital markets of West African countries would open up immense opportunities for corporate and national developments and enhance the capabilities of capital market operators within the region.

    All stakeholders at the weekend extolled the benefits of the regional capital market integration programme at a sensitization workshop organized by the West African Capital Markets Integration Council (WACMIC) in Abuja.

    The West African Capital Market Integration (WACMI) programme seeks to fully integrate the existing securities exchanges in Nigeria-Nigerian Stock Exchange; Ghana-Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Sierra Leone-Sierra Leone Stock Exchange and the bloc of eight francophone countries under the Bourse Regionale des Valuers Mobilieres (BRVM).

    WACMI entails integration of listing, trading and settlement rules in a way that allows capital market operators and investors to trade across the markets. Any company with primary listing in any of the country will be able to raise capital across the markets.

    Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Suleyman Ndanusa, said the sub-regional markets would be able to better optimize their potentials and competitiveness through the integration.

    According to him, the integration will clearly broaden the capital raising space for listed companies with positive impact on industrial development.

    “I believe that access to a wider market which integration provides could encourage more companies to embrace the capital market for funds and listing and further deepen the regional markets. Integration could also bring increased visibility to listed companies and market operators as their activities get to be known and publicized across the region which, hopefully, would impact on their operations,” Ndanusa said.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market, Senator Ayo Adeseun, assured that the Nigerian legislature and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament will support the integration with appropriate legislations to ensure the seamless legal and regulatory frameworks.

    President, Ecowas Commission, Kadre Ouedraogo, outlined that the capital market integration was in line with Article 2 of the Ecowas Treaty and urged national authorities, regulators and other stakeholders to fast-track efforts to complete the integration.

    He noted that the integration bring together some 300 million potential investors and a more efficient and deeper market that would benefit the regional economy and the citizenry.

    He assured that that Ecowas will intensify efforts to realize other complementary financial projects including settlement and payment systems and investment bank.

    Chairman, West African Capital Markets Integration Council (WACMIC), Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the first phase of the integration is expected to kick-off by March 2014 through a ‘sponsored access’ mechanism which will allow brokers within the member countries to trade and settle securities in other markets through local brokers.

    He pointed out that with the integration of the NSE, GSE and BRVM, investors, issuers and operators will have access to a market in excess of $120 billion with some 300 listed companies.

    Onyema, who is chief executive officer of the NSE, said the full integration is expected to conclude by December 2015, under which brokers can trade directly on any of the stock exchanges from any location within the region.

     

     

     

  • NSE advocates review of pension fund investment rules

    NSE advocates review of pension fund investment rules

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is seeking to have rules on the investment of pension-fund relaxed to attract funds and boost Africa’s third-best performing gauge this year, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Onyema has said.

    He told Bloomberg that Nigeria has more than N3.5 trillion in invested retirement savings, according to the National Pension Commission (Pencom).

    Investors should be able to put that money into companies with at least three years of financial statements, less than the five required now.

    He said: “Most of Pencom’s regulations are designed to protect investors, but investors are becoming more sophisticated. We are working very closely with them, the National Assembly, and other appropriate bodies to highlight areas where we believe there is a need for enhancement.”

    Onyema wants reforms to boost stocks, which have led the market’s all-share index move 32 per cent higher this year, and bolster an economy set to expand 6.2 per cent this year and 7.4 per cent in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    South Africa’s pension assets were worth about 3 trillion rand ($307 billion) by the second quarter, according to Bloomberg calculations made using Reserve Bank data, while the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s all-share index gained 15 per cent this year.

    Ghana which ended the state pension fund’s monopoly on retirement savings, had assets of 1.06 billion cedis ($484 million) last year, according to the country’s pensions regulator. Ghana’s Composite Index is Africa’s best performer this year, jumping 75 per cent.