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If this bill is passed, Nigerian Stock Exchange will be publicly listed
The Nigerian Stock Exchange may be on the path to being publicly listed.
The NSE is the biggest exchange in sub-Saharan Africa after Johannesburg and is a major entry point for investors seeking investment opportunities in Africa. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the continent’s most developed stock market, has been a listed company since 2006.
In 2017, the NSE became a publicly listed company after being given the go-ahead by its members which are mostly stockbrokers and institutional investors.
Onyema said that he is expecting the public listing, which is a process known as demutualization, to generate profits that will boost its business and product development capacity.
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He said, "In 2017, we amplified our efforts to establish West Africa’s first derivatives market. We also worked to create and enhance legal and regulatory frameworks which support derivative instruments, and have made significant progress towards securing approvals to operationalize these frameworks."
In 2017, the Nigerian equities market was the third best-performing market in the world after the central bank liberalized the Naira for foreign investors which brought back funds that been pulled out at the peak of a currency crisis.
The performance in 2017 was attributed partly to some of the central bank policies which helped to increase currency market liquidity. Onyema stated that he expected corporate earnings to lift equities this year, despite currency and political risks, after stocks crossed 44,000 points to hit a nine-year high on Tuesday, January 16, 2018.
Stocks gained 42% last year and have continued to rally this year, rising 13% in the first 11 days of trading. The NSE has about 200 listed companies and plans to launch exchange-traded derivatives securities this year.
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