- Fed Govt Seeks Capital Market Support for Tech Firms
The Federal Government has called for a more concerted effort to use the capital market as a growth platform for technological companies and start-ups.
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, said the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) should consider ways to encourage listing of more technological firms in order to help in the development of the Nigerian technological know-hows.
Onu, who spoke at the commissioning of a N500 million data centre at the NSE yesterday in Lagos, said the government is working to redirect Nigerian economy from dependence on oil to a more diversified economy driven by innovations.
He said the government has already launched many initiatives to position science and technology as the fulcrum of the national economic development including the development and use of domestic research to meet the emerging needs of Nigerian private and public sectors.
He said the ongoing efforts to ensure utilization of local raw materials for manufacturing will save Nigeria about N3 trillion by 2021.
He commended the NSE for its contributions to the development of the Nigerian economy noting that the Exchange has all it takes to compete with other global stock exchanges.
Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the N500 million data centre was designed to tier 111 standards, within the highest global standards adding that this has further enhanced NSE’s leading advantage over other African stock exchanges.
According to him, the data centre was designed not only to support the activities of the NSE but also other firms that may want to host their data services at the Exchange.
“We are very happy with the quality of the data centre,” Onyema said.
He pointed out that the Exchange will primarily devote the data centre to the services of its broker-dealer community and then, it may extend the services to quoted companies and other stakeholders.
