The Director-General, Securities and
Exchange Commission, SEC, Mounir Gwarzo, has called for the listing of the
power generation and distribution companies, as well as their telecommunications
counterparts operating in the country on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and/or the
NASD OTC securities market.
Gwarzo said taking this step was not only orderly
but inevitable towards averting huge revenues constantly lost by the country through
taxation and therefore warned that continued absence of the companies from the
NSE and NASD spells economic disaster.
The NSE boss made this remarks during the
NSE/London Stock Exchange dual listing conference held in Lagos on yesterday with
a theme: ‘Leveraging Cross-border Capital Markets for Sustainable Growth’, adding
that the call for listing was anchored on the need to give the capital market
the required strength towards stimulating the economy.
“Very high percentage of taxes paid to the
government comes from quoted firms. It is, therefore, in the interest of the
country that these companies and more are listed on these markets,” he said.
In similar vein, the Chief Executive Officer
of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Oscar Onyema, emphasized on the prominent roles
played by the capital markets for the growth of any economy adding that the collaboration
of NSE with SEC was strategic and calculated towards being a strong and effervescent
capital market network.
“Capital
markets increase the proportion of long-term savings that are channeled to
long-term investments.
“Our collaboration with
the LSE is deliberate and strategic. It is geared towards encouraging seamless
cross-border access between our capital markets to ultimately drive deeper
capital markets that enable capital formation for businesses and governments;
create larger liquidity pools and greater competitiveness for our investors;
and enhance capacity and promote diversity of investment products to meet the
needs of a wide range of investors and issuers”, Onyema said.
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