03 February 2012, Sweetcrude, LAGOS – The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has relaxed its requirements for the mining industry to encourage listing of shares by oil and gas companies, according to a statement on the website of the Lagos-based bourse.
Oil and gas companies will be listed based on their exploration license and the “proven commercial quantities” of their reserves, Bloomberg reports, quoting the statement.
Other companies with market capitalisations of more than 500 billion naira at the initial public offering, will also get “a deferral or exemption from the minimum public float requirement,” it said.
The management of the bourse aims to raise the market value to $1 trillion from $74 billion in five years, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Onyema said in June.
Achieving that target depends on the exchange’s ability to attract companies in the oil and gas, telecom and power industries, he said.
Crude oil export is Nigeria’s biggest foreign exchange earner, but none of the exploration and production companies operating in Africa’s most populous nation are listed on the local stock market.
