Goddy Egene
The Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ Group, Mr. Bola Onadele.Koko, has stated that infrastructure development is critical for economic growth, reduced poverty, job creation as well as improving the wellbeing of the citizenry.
According to him, the debt capital market (DCM) provides a key avenue through which infrastructural growth can be fostered to promote economic development.
Onadele stated this during a webinar recently facilitated to create a platform for expert discussions on infrastructure development in Nigeria leveraging the DCM.
The webinar was in line with the Terms of Reference of the Infrastructure Finance Sub-Committee of the FMDQ Debt Capital Markets Development (DCMD) Project, to facilitate the uptake of capital markets products as a means of financing infrastructure.
Onadele said at FMDQ, they recognise the increasing role of the inclusion of private capital in the Nigerian capital market which had hitherto been serviced only by public companies.
“FMDQ Private Markets Limited was incorporated to enable private companies irrespective of size to access the market for funding and raise vital capital to expand operations and function as efficiently as possible within their various sectors,” he said.
Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer, Chapel Hill Denham & Chair, Steering Committee, FMDQ DCMD Project, Mr. Bolaji Balogun, said: “It is absolutely clear that if any country wants to develop, the country develops primarily around the base of a deep and liquid domestic debt capital market and therefore, the role that FMDQ Group plays in this respect is pivotal.”
In all, session discussed various impacting topics, which included: the opportunities and challenges of benchmarking the Nigerian debt infrastructure market; identifying the scope of de-risking tools in enhancing bankability of infrastructure projects, and government incentives and legislation reforms to unlock infrastructure development in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the stock market opened the week on negative note on profit taking after five a bullish performance last week. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.09 per cent to close at 25,582.23, while market capitalisation shed N12.2 billion to close at N13.4 trillion.
Also, activity level reduced as volume and value traded declined 39.5 per cent and 47.2 per cent to 254 million shares and N2.0 billion respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were United Bank for Africa Plc (44.3 million shares), Zenith Bank Plc (30.8 million shares) and Access Bank Plc (29.1 million shares units) while Zenith Bank Plc (N536.1 million), UBA (N292 million and Access Bank Plc (N196.6 million) topped by value.
