The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Nigerian International Securities Limited (NISL) and the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) expressed commitment to expanding retail investment opportunities in the capital market. The trio made the commitment at a webinar organised by the NSE in collaboration with the NISL in Lagos. It was also supported by the CIS and the Association of Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the webinar was on “Capital Market Investing in a Digital Age”. Mr Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, in his address, said that investor participation was crucial to sustainable economic growth. Onyema said that the Exchange was committed to playing its role in advancing the Federal Government’s financial inclusion goals. “Investor participation is central to the growth of sustainable development of any economy. “NSE is committed to playing a critical role in the advancement of the FG’s financial inclusion goals. “As part of our efforts to realise the objectives of the financial inclusion, we intend to facilitate conversations which will serve to equip existing and potential investors with the necessary skill to effectively manage and grow financial resources at their disposal. “In these engagements, we will also expand the retail investment opportunities available in the capital market and the channels through which they can be accessed,” Onyema said. The CEO of the Exchange also hailed operators and investors in the capital market for their resilience, with the COVID-19 pandemic. “The outbreak of COVID-19 adversely affected the global economy in many ways and at different magnitude. “The Nigerian capital market was also negatively affected, with the market witnessing a downturn in Q1 of this year. “However, the market rebounded in Q2 and as a result the NSE all share index has recorded a 18.9 per cent increase from its position at the end of March. “The market also witnessed the growth in the percentage value of equity transactions contributed by retail investors, currently at 29 per cent from 21.8 per cent in 2018 and 24.72 per cent in 2019,” he said. According to him, these highlight the market’s resilience in time of adversity and is a testament of market stakeholders’ ability to adapt. Onyema said that digital technology played a significant role in achieving the positive results recorded in the NSE so far. He said that technology had helped to make significant services more easily accessible. Mr Laolu Martins, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NISL, said that it had become imperative to ensure that retail investors were made aware of the opportunities inherent in the capital market. Martins said that for retail investors, navigating through the web of processes in the capital market was usually difficult, thereby discouraging them from investing. He said: “The general belief is that retail investors are often left behind and do not have enough knowledge on the workings of the capital market. “It is interesting to note that the NSE has over the years taken time and work to ensure that retail investors are carried along and aware of the various opportunities inherent in the NSE. “NISL is a securities trading company, financial advisory service, offering consulting solutions to corporate bodies across the value of activities on the stock exchange. “In order to invest properly, all investors need to carry out some sort of financial planning, no matter how small or big. “We realised that for retail investors, it is usually difficult for them to navigate through these web of processes and other issues that create a bottleneck or discourage investors.” Martins said that some processes that create difficulties for investors include budgeting, investment, savings, risk management and liquidity management. “At NISL, we have enough expertise to ensure that we help our investors navigate through this web of terms and processes to ensure that their investment is rewarding,” he said. Martins said the reason for the webinar was to expose some of the investment opportunities for retail investors. “This webinar is to enlighten the investing public, retail investors, that they can buy bonds in the NSE and it is like lending your money to a company or a government entity. “It is advisable that retail investors should approach their stockbrokers to guide them in which bond they should invest in,” he said. Mr Femi Balogun, Head, Market services Department, NSE, spoke on the importance of market data in guiding investors’ decision. “Market data is important to the investment of an intending investor. “Some people are good at picking stocks, but If you use data to drive your decision in conjunction with your expertise, you make a better informed decision on your investment,” he said. Mr Olatunde Amolegbe, President of CIS, commended the NSE, while pledging the Institute’s continued support to drive an inclusive financial system. Amolegbe said that the Exchange had always provided avenues that would support and ensure a seamless investing process for retail and other investors.

• Brokers blame uncertainty, harsh business climate • Experts decry poor infrastructure for tech hardware With global technology companies, including Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Zoom, apparently doing well, and to a large extent, influencing gradual recovery of the US stock market, some surpassing the $1 trillion valuation, the challenge is gradually shifting to players in Nigeria. Attention is gradually shifting towards faster recovery of the Nigerian Capital Market, which can boast of technology and telecoms firms such as Chams Plc, CWG Plc, eTranzact, NCR, Triple Gee and Company Plc, Courtville, Omatek, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria. While the capital market valuation is put at N13.364 trillion as of September 20, 2020, the tech stocks account for 4.89 per cent of the market. Checks by The Guardian showed that as of July, CWG Plc, which was listed in 2013, had a market capitalisation of N6.41 billion ($16.5 million); eTranzact had N10.9 billion ($28.28 million) capitalisation. It was listed on August 7, 2009. NCR was listed on May 30, 1979, and had a market capitalisation of N216 million. Other players, including Triple Gee and Company Plc, which was listed on April 2, 2013, had N283 million ($730,322) capitalisation. Courteville, as of July, had N745.9 million ($1.92 million) capitalisation and was listed in April 2009. Omatek Plc got listed in 2008, and market capitalisation is N2.94 billion ($7.58 million). Chams Plc, which got listed on September 8, 2008, had, as of July, a market capitalisation of N4.69 billion ($12.1 million). AMONG the major telecoms players, MTN Nigeria was listed on May 16, 2019, and had a market capitalisation of N2.36 trillion ($6.08 billion) as of July, while Airtel Nigeria, which got listed on July 9, 2019, had a market capitalisation of N1.123 trillion ($2.89 billion). While much is expected from the global technology stocks, which are on the upward swing, it may however, take another 30 years for listed firms on the local bourse to hit the $1 trillion market valuation. Technology experts, who spoke with The Guardian, said the fundamentals in the country had not shown anything promising, but more of a tough future because of obvious challenges in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Olusola Teniola, agreed that the new unicorns in Africa that could hit the $1 trillion valuation in ICT would most likely come from Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria. He, however, noted that the unicorns might grow into the likes of Apple and Amazon by 2050. According to him, on the back of a growing demographic that is below 34 years old, and “the penchant to diversify the economies of Africa away from reliance on the extractive industries, there’s a possibility for the youth to leverage local music and film content. The main challenge is the youth’s mindset in not believing they have their own destiny in their hands.” The ATCON president noted that the globalisation of these tech companies had caused and would continue to create profound impact on the direction of adoption of critical technology. “It is very apparent over the past decades that the growing importance in the ability to automate processes and develop smart communities is now upon us. The transition in Nigeria has just begun and these tech giants are attempting to define the way we work, rest, play and live our daily lives. COVID-19 demonstrates the potential,” he stated. On how Nigeria can encourage more tech companies to go public like counterparts abroad, Teniola described innovation as key to driving the kinds of valuations required in attracting unicorn status and correspondingly high market cap. “The trend in one or two recent telco listings demonstrates the potentials,” he stated. KEHINDE Aluko, a telecoms expert, said getting to that level requires ruggedness and huge investments, coupled with favourable government-enabled environment, “I am looking at 20 to 30 years from now for that to materialise. “If you check those companies, I mean Apple and Amazon, they didn’t just start now, it was a journey for them. The earlier we started the journey here, the better for the economy as a whole. I don’t think we have started here.” A former Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, CWG, a listed firm on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), James Agada, believes that on paper, it is possible for indigenous IT firms in the region to get to that level, but practically it may not materialise on time. Agada had told to The Guardian last year that Nigerians often placed value on companies based on their ability to pay dividend, “but if you go and check, Amazon has never paid dividend, but their Chairman and CEO is the richest man in the world. They don’t pay dividend and they are not about to pay. Even if you check their figures, they are barely breaking even. The issue in Nigeria, is that what we consider as assets here differ from what they consider as assets or capital there. “In America and other developed countries, they are looking at the firm’s future potential. They see Amazon, Apple in that clan of bringing out huge potential. Even if you look at our banks, you will think they are big, but they are actually small. They are small because if you look at how much dividend they have to pay every year, to do a major investment may be difficult.” Agada said the country might end up seeing Nigerian-majority owned companies operating from the U.S., to adopt American operating system to grow very large, as is already happening in startups, like Flutterwave. This firm is registered as a U.S. company, even though it is mainly run by Nigerians, and same goes for Andela.” On the possibility of government policies changing some things positively, Agada noted that the American system believes strongly in future value to be created in another 20 years because they have policies that create stability to guard against major shocks or disruptions. “But in Nigeria, there are very few