The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has disclosed that the value of transactions on its platform increased by 114% between January and April 2018, having recorded ₦1.091 trillion as against ₦509.4 billion recorded the same period last year.
NSE’s Chief Executive Officer, Oscar Onyema, made this known last Friday while speaking at the NSE-London Stock Exchange (LSE) Dual Listing Conference in Lagos.
He said the development is due to an increase in the number of products offered by the bourse to investors. Recall that the NSE had listed the $300 million Diaspora Bonds and $3 billion Eurobonds in 2017 and the ₦100 billion Federal Government Ijarah Sukuk bonds, amongst others. The bonds were issued with the intentions of catalysing the rebound of Nigeria’s economy while offering investment alternatives to the investing public.
Onyema, however, noted that market activities have failed to keep up with “the pace of resurgence recorded in 2017”.
According to ThisDay, Onyema listed the following as the factors that dominated market activities in 2017-
- Supplementary offers
- Listings by introduction
- Debt issuances, and
- Divestments
Meanwhile, the theme of this year’s NSE-London Stock Exchange (LSE) Dual Listing Conference is “Attracting Global capital to drive Nigeria’s Economic Reforms and Sustainable Growth”. This, the NSE boss said was topical for Nigeria in a time like this.
“Capital markets are critical to sustainability of growth and development in an economy. It is my strong belief that one of the things that Nigeria (and Africa) needs to sustain its growth, is a solid and vibrant capital market ecosystem that will attract investment and unlock the potential that exists in the economy.” -Onyema
He also spoke about the need to sustain the growth in African bourses, financial markets, capital markets, and economies, while noting that doing that would require commitment from everyone.
The NSE-London Stock Exchange (LSE) Dual Listing Conference was a strategic collaboration between the leading bourses which is aimed at “encouraging seamless cross-border access between our capital markets to ultimately drive deeper capital markets that enable capital formation for businesses and governments; create larger liquidity pools and greater competitiveness for our investors; and enhance capacity and promote diversity of investment products to meet the needs of a wide range of investors and issuers.”
One of the benefits of this collaboration includes the Federal Government of Nigeria’s foreign exchange-dominated $1 billion Eurobond which was recently listed on both the NSE and the LSE.
