- NSE Strengthening Listed Firms’ Corporate Governance –Onyema
The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema, has said the bourse will continue to position itself as the Exchange of choice for African issuers and global investors.
He said the NSE would continue to implement far-reaching transformational policies aimed at strengthening the corporate governance of listed companies and providing products that were aligned to investors’ requirements, whilst also ensuring a fair and orderly market.
“These initiatives have improved investor confidence and repositioned firms listed on the Exchange as attractive investment opportunities,” he said at the facts-behind-the-figures presentation by Sterling Bank Plc on Tuesday.
He said the Exchange would continue to provide a platform to support listed companies to meet their strategic business objectives.
According to Onyema, the NSE is positioned as a premiere listing destination for African corporates, governments and international issuers looking to access the capital market.
He said to further promote and continuously drive the development of a more transparent, liquid and accessible market, the NSE had expanded its product lines to include structured products for retail and institutional investors.
“We have automated rights trading and settlement to enhance price discovery and facilitate counterparty trading without settlement complexities, he stated.”
Onyema said the Exchange had held a series of trainings to develop capacity in the area of derivatives, with the imminent launch of its Exchange Traded Derivatives market.
He added, “As part of our continued effort to deliver a world-class market infrastructure, we have also launched market surveillance SMARTS platform powered NASDAQ; X-Academy as part of the continuous drive to ensure increased capacity building as well as the state-of-the art data centre.
“The data centre is consistent with our tradition of pioneering far-reaching innovations within the Nigerian capital market. With this launch, the NSE can now offer a secure, cost-efficient and holistic cloud solutions to different stakeholders.”
The NSE CEO noted that four companies migrated to the Premium Board last month, and the Premium Board index continued to outperform the All-Share Index, with a 15.54 per cent return as at May 7, 2018, compared to 7.66 per cent return for the ASI.
“Indeed, the performance of the Premium Board reflects the appeal of transparent, strong listed companies to global investors,” he added.
He said, “Recognising this, the NSE continues to create opportunities to showcase African champions on the world stage. The Exchange recently launched its Corporate Governance Index to provide investors with additional data points and strengthen listed companies by tracking their corporate governance practices.”
Onyema noted that in over 50 years of operations, Sterling Bank (formerly NAL Bank) had evolved from the nation’s pre-eminent investment banking institution to a fully-fledged commercial bank, and completed a merger with four other banks as part of the 2006 consolidation of the Nigerian banking industry.
