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Nigerian Equities Market rises N4.5tn in three years under Onyema

By BusinessNews Staff on April 22, 2014

The Nigerian equities market has appreciated by N4.531 trillion in the last three years since the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) management led by Oscar Onyema took over in April 2011.

Onyema assumed office as the chief executive officer of NSE April 2011 following the removal of the Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke as the director-general of the exchange by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2010.

THISDAY ‘s assessment of the NSE performance three years after Onyema’s assumed leadership at the Nigerian bourse shows that the market capitalisation of the equities market has grown by N4.531 trillion, while the NSE All-Share Index grew by about 57 per cent.

Specifically, the market capitalisation rose from N7.908 trillion to N12.439 trillion, while the ASI grew from 24,752.04 to 38,712.76.

A yearly analysis of the performance in the first year of his assumption ended April 2012, the ASI went down by 15 per cent. It recovered and soared by 64 per cent in the second year ended April 2013. It had another positive growth of 12.7 per cent for the third year ended April 4, 2014.

A further assessment of market performance indicates that the growth so far recorded under Onyema could be attributed to the innovative growth strategies introduced in the market by the NSE management.

When he assumed office in 2011, Onyema promised that the focus of its management team would the deepening the stock market, integrity, transparency, discipline, adherence to corporate governance principles, amongst others.

The management then went ahead to introduce what it called the “five pillars” of its transformation strategy including: targeted business development, enhanced regulatory programmes, 21st century technology strategies, enhanced market structure, and investor protection initiatives.

The NSE has introduced a new market structure that reclassified the sectors for better understanding, new products exchange traded funds) and new trading platform(X-Gen). However, market operators said the major initiative that boosted the performance was the introduction of market making that eventually led to an increase in the daily price movement from five per cent to 10 per cent.

Reviewing the performance of the market in 2013 and looking ahead for 2014, Onyema said early this year that the NSE would concentrate on achieving global visibility in 2014 having recorded some milestone in the effort of restructuring and improving technology development in the last three years.

“While the NSE’s focus from 2011 to 2013 has been on restructuring, improving technology, product development, and advocacy for changes to policy, in 2014, we will shift gear to drive innovations centered on increasing global visibility into the Nigerian capital market, developing a larger footprint on the continent, and ultimately, targeting emerging market status.”

According to him, the Exchange’s primary focus will be on growing the capital market in preparation for achieving emerging market status in 2914.

“The NSE will facilitate access to and participation in the market; increase our footprint on the continent; and deploy a risk framework to safe-guard the market venue,” Onyema said.

[This Day]

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