Some financial experts have identified security challenges and infrastructure decay as the major challenge of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) toward the attainment of one trillion dollars capitalisation by 2016.
They said in Lagos that the target could only be achieved through friendly operating environment and listing of multinationals. The market capitalisation was N14.189 trillion as at July 15. Mr Harrison Owoh, the Managing Director, HJ Trust & Investment Ltd., said that the rising security challenge would be a hindrance to the NSE target. Owoh said that economic and political stability and friendly investment laws were paramount to the attainment of one trillion market capitalisation by 2016.
He said that the target would not be achieved without the listing of multinationals on the exchange. Owoh, however, called for tax incentives to encourage more listings on the nation’s bourse. Owoh said that government should pay more attention to infrastructure development. He reiterated that poor infrastructure had raised the cost of business and lowered their survival rate.
Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the immediate President, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, said that the target was ambiguous and would not be achieved by 2016. Yussuf said that the nation’s economy going by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was not yet a trillion dollar economy. He said that the NSE market capitalisation would hit one trillion dollars in the years ahead, but not by 2016.
“We will get there but not by 2016 because we are very far away from the target. We will move closer to the set target if power companies, telecommunication and other multinationals are persuaded to list,” Yussuf said. Mr Emmanuel Ohanwusi, the Chief Executive of Maxifund Investment & Securities, recently told NAN that although the current figure was low, the one billion dollar mark could be attained. Ohanwusi urged the government to convince multinationals to list on the NSE.
According to him, the government should encourage multinationals to imbibe the doctrine of necessity and list their shares on the NSE. He said that government should ensure that certain threshold of all its future divestment and privatisation were listed on the NSE. Ohanwusi said that political instability or policy somersault could derail the target. Mr Oscar Onyema, the Chief Executive Officer of NSE in 2012, disclosed plans for the NSE to hit $1 trillion market capitalisation by 2016.
