- RMB to Launch Stockbroking Arm in Nigeria
Rand Merchant Bank is set to launch its stockbroking arm in Nigeria, as part of its fifth anniversary celebration.
The Chief Executive Officer, RMB Nigeria Stockbrokers, Abiola Adekoya, said in an interview that the bank had a market capitalisation of over $19bn, and sought to diversify its earnings base by launching its stockbroking arm in Nigeria.
She said the stockbroking arm, scheduled to be unveiled on June 7, was envisaged to offer a strong distribution platform for the bank.
She said, “We strongly believe in the growth potential of the Nigerian equities market. To put this into perspective, the daily trade of Nigerian equities is around $20m, far less than the $1bn daily turnover on the South African stock exchange, despite Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa.
“At RMB, we see this structural market deficiency as a potential upside for long term, sustainable growth in the stock market.”
She added that the bank would continue to position its stockbroking brand and offerings from a thought leadership and value-adding perspective, though the level of competition in the Nigerian equities market was intense, especially as it concerned plain vanilla equities brokerage offerings.
According to Adekoya, the bank is well-positioned to take advantage of the forecasted growth in the market and it stands out as a broker of choice, “because of its drive and desire to offer excellent financial services and best execution as well as quality research products in a homogenous market at competitive prices.”
She said it was the goal of the bank to build a leading stockbroking firm that would provide domestic and international investors with best-in-class trade execution services, equity sales distribution, strong corporate access, distribution of primary market products and a highly rated sub-Saharan Africa research product.
She said, “FirstRand Group has a long-term strategic vision of financial services offering in the Nigerian market, and RMB Nigeria Stockbrokers is part of the strategy. The RMBNS prides itself as a business being driven by an experienced and high-performance team, focused on providing solutions to clients, underpinned by sound knowledge of the Nigerian and African equities market.”
