Professionals in the country’s financial markets have advocated for stable monetary and fiscal policies to encourage investment in the country. They made this known during the 2018 Financial Markets Conference organised by the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA).
President of the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) Samuel Ochecho in his opening remarks during the Association’s 2018 Financial Markets Conference over the weekend stated that the conference was one of the ways the association was contributing to the growth and development of the country’s financial markets.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele represented by Mrs Olatoun Akinola of the Financial Markets Department, stated the current state of the country’s financial markets (especially the capital market) was a course for concern.
He, however, advocated for more financial instruments to deepen the market and expressed confidence that the capital market could be a key source of raising capital for businesses as was witnessed during the banking consolidation.
In the first panel session which was on the role of the Financial Markets in Unlocking Capital Flows to the Real Sector, the Lead Speaker Mr Tony Elumelu, Chairman UBA Plc (represented by Executive Director, UBA, Chukwuma Nweke), highlighted the challenges the real sector (industry) faced in accessing finance, and how this can be addressed.
Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), stated that sectors which find it difficult to access to finance are often operated in an informal manner.
Sadiku also stated that the government had put together a compendium of incentives for small businesses especially the agricultural sector, such as a lower tax rate.
The second panel was led by Mr Amine Mati, IMF Country Chief. He stated that a stable fiscal and monetary policy was necessary for investment. This was also re-echoed by other members of the panel namely Peter Maila, Coverage Director, CDC Group Plc, Africa and Ladell Robbins, Principal at Africa Capital Alliance.
The Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) began informally in 1979 and was made up of commercial and merchant banks, that carried out treasury dealing and trading securities. Its membership was extended to the discount houses in 1991.
At the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Association held on the 23rd of May 2009, a name change was approved. The association is divided into 5 working groups: Bond, Foreign Exchange, Money Market, Swaps and Derivatives and Treasury Support Workgroup.