Comercio Partners Eyes Banking Licence

Comercio Partners Eyes Banking Licence

Comercio Partners Limited, an investment and financial advisory company has disclosed plan to secure either a commercial or merchant banking licence in the next three years.

This was disclosed during a media briefing that had the firm’s three Co-Managing Partners in attendance yesterday, to commemorate the company’s fifth anniversary.

The Co-Managing Partner/ Head, Investment, Tosin Osunkoya, said the move was part of the massive target set by the firm to drive growth and expansion despite the economic challenges in the country.

He also said the plan was to continue providing financial advisory and assets management services to domestic and international investors in the Sub-Saharan African Capital Markets that are interested in the new emerging frontier market in Nigeria.

According to him, “We are looking beyond 2021. The targets we set for ourselves for the next five years is for Comercio Partners to be a one- stop-shop and what that means is that as a client if you are looking to do any kind of financial transaction or looking for financial services; Comercio Partners should be the first thought.

“So what we are looking at and we would try to do in the next five years is to capture the minds of the retail investing community, institutional investors, high networth investors and others. And how do we intend to achieve that? So, what we set out for ourselves is to set up an organogram where you would have different entities under a whole single structure.”

He further explained, “So we plan to have a regional bank or a merchant bank in the next two or three years, we also plan to retain those entities that are in existence right now. So you have the trading arm of the business- which is commercial trading, Comercio Asset management and Comercio Partners capital.”

He pointed out that the company’s participation in the last bond issuance by Lagos State was a reflection of its strength and capacity, adding that it conveyed a strong message to the market and further boosted its penetration in the industry.

The company conducts rigorous research by utilizing both macro and micro analytical tools to generate statistical analysis of the prevailing market trends in achieving the stated goal of client asset appreciation.

Also, in his contribution, the MD/CEO, Comercio Partners Capital, Steve Osho, said the company would continue to unfold initiatives to impact its host communities.

“We are actually looking at how we can impact our communities in terms of social impact. Last year we participated in a lot of CSR activities, especially during the lockdown that was occasioned by COVID-19.

“We participated in a crowd funding company to provide food items, house equipment AND materials for the less privilege in the society,” added.

Osho also said the company has continued to contribute towards inculcating financial literacy among children.

“Also, last year as part our contribution to the financial landscape of Nigeria, we concluded one of the landmark transactions in the financial capital market which was the Green bond,” he added.

On his part, the Co-Managing Partner/Head, Trading, Mr. Nnamdi Nwizu, while responding to a question on how to stimulate activities in the financial market, said: “I think we need to keep growing our external reserves again because what has happened now is that we have very little participation from foreign investors and as long as that continues to happen, we would continue to see reduced participation in the fixed income and equities’ space.

“So if we want rates to come back again in fixed income space to lower levels, which will make it more affordable for corporates investors to come back and start issuing securities again like what we saw towards the ends of last year when yields were low, we need to try and get foreign investors to come back again.

“Another part that we need is to see OPEC increase production volume for Nigeria so that we can feel the full effects of that rise in crude oil price.”

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