19 August 2013, Abuja – The bid by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, to get companies in the telecommunication and oil and gas sector to list on the Exchange received a major boost Friday when the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala and the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, had a close door session with leading players in the sector to iron-out issues hindering them from listing.
Speaking to stockbrokers and newsmen at the trading floor of the NSE, Okonjo-Iweala, restated the federal government’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria remain the financial hub in Africa.
To achieve this, she noted that there was need to deepen the Nigerian capital market by ensuring that companies that play in the sectors that were the main stay of the Nigerian economy were listed on the Exchange.
According to her, “The stock market has been and remains the pillar of the Nigerian economy. The same applies to the rest of the world. The way the stock market goes show the direction of the economy. We have taken a lot of measures since the stock market crisis to ensure the market return to where it was.
“We are in the process of gazetting some of the measures that we took. They will take effect soon. We believe the stock market need to be deepened and that more companies must be listed. That is why we are here talking to everyone concerned.”
On her part, Omobola Johnson, said the federal government decided to engage players in the telecommunication sector to show that the government was committed to collaborating with them to move the economy forward.
She added that it was important that companies in the telecommunication sector were listed because they contribute 8.5 per cent the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
She said: “What we are doing now is collaborative engagement because there is a space for growth in the market. It may not be tomorrow but from what we have discussed from the session, we had today, I can tell you that we will have major telecommunications firms listed very soon.
“We are sure of their promise and commitment because we have explained to them why they need to list on our market. Personally I am impressed with what the NSE is doing; all these we have explained them. They still need to go back to their board and explain to them why they must be listed on another exchange”.
Managing Director of Trust Yield Limited, AlhajiRasakYusuf, thanked the minister and asked her to help press the government to ensure a dual listing to the government’s $1 billion Euro Bond listed on the London Stock Exchange, LSE, recently.
– This Day