The Financial Dealers Markets Quotations (FMDQ) OTC plc has issued licence to 26 dealing members with a view to consolidating the fixed income market and making it efficient, credible and globally competitive.
The historic event took place at the Wheatbaker Hotel Ikoyi Lagos where industry players were in attendance to grace the occasion of what could be perceived as a tremendous breakthrough in the Nigeria financial markets.
The product and mission of the FMDQ is to aggregate resources, use better standards and also to bring professionalism at a higher level, according to Akinsowon Dawodu, the immediate past president of the Financial Markets Dealers association/Director, FMDQ OTC, in his welcome address.
“We started to involve operations and people and left the market a little more developed,” said Dawodu.
FMDQ OTC is a Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) licensed over-the-counter (OTC) market securities exchange and self-regulatory organisation (SRO); with a vision to become the most liquid, efficient, secure and technology-driven OTC platform in Africa by 2018, through its mission of empowering the OTC financial markets to be innovative and credible, in support of the Nigerian economy.
The licensing of its dealing members will further help boost the amount of the trading of bills and bond, which the regulator expects to hit N10 trillion by the end of December 2014.
“The importance of regulation and transparency in this market cannot be overemphasised as FMDQ is a market for all stakeholders of the OTC market,” said Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, chairman, FMDQ OTC, in a key note address, saying “this ceremony is a demonstration of the importance the OTC attaches to regulations.”
Nigeria fixed income market is worth N12 trillion ($73bn), according to Bloomberg data, which is equivalent to 14.95 percent of the rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of N80.22 trillion ($510bn).
“The licence you are about to receive today gives you the right to deal in FMDQ products,” said Oscar Onyema, chairman, Board Regulation and Supervision Committee, FMDQ, in his special address.
In order to consolidate and intensify the bond market, the regulatory body announced the launch of the Bloomberg E-Bond trading and market surveillance system, a new electronic trading system for Nigerian government bond.
Also in attendance at the historic event was the publisher of BusinessDay Newspaper, Frank Aigbogun.
“There has been a remarkable improvement in our money market over the past seven years,” Aig- Imoukhuede said.
BALA AUGIE
