Minister Calls for Govt, Capital Market Operators Collaboration

Minister Calls for Govt, Capital Market Operators Collaboration

Goddy Egene

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah,

has called for closer collaboration between the government and capital market operators, so as to boost economic growth and transformation.

Enelamah, made the call at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos, during a visit by members of Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to sound the closing gong.

The minister said the partnership should be robust in order to transcend various government administrations, and impact on job and wealth creation, economic growth and development.

According to him, there was a need for government to forge synergy with the private sector towards exploring opportunities of raising capital through the market for infrastructure projects and boost industrialisation.

Also speaking, , the Secretary, PEBEC, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, said there was a need for the private sector to partner with the Council to grow the economy.

She said the government, through the ease of doing business initiatives, was working on various reforms toward making the country attractive for businesses to thrive.

In the same vein, the Acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Mary Uduk, said SEC had been at the forefront of supporting capital market operations, saying that it developed the e-dividend to boost investors’ confidence in the market.

She said the NSE also evolved initiatives to ensure liquidity in the market and that operators do the right thing.

Speaking on behalf of market operators, former Chairman of Association of Securities Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) and Chief Executive Officer, Trust Yield Securities, Mr. Rasheed Yusuf, hailed the call for robust collaboration between government and the market operators.

He said that government should ensure that the partnership reflected on the market’s activities and urging government to utilise the capital market to improve the economy.

According to him, deficits in government’s budget could be financed through the capital market for accelerated economic growth and development.

Meanwhile, trading at the stock market opened for the week on negative note as the NSE All-Share Index fell by 0.73 per cent to close at 29,521.90. Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N82.4 billion to close at N11.1trillion.

However, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 18.7 per cent and 40.4 per cent to 290.2 million shares and N2.2 billion respectively. Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc (56.6 million shares), UBA (30.0 million shares) and Wema Bank (25.3 million shares) were the top traded stocks by volume.

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