The Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) has disclosed its readiness to monitor and work with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in ensuring that the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in the next 5 years.
Briefing investment journalists ahead of the forthcoming third annual national workshop of the CIS, Albert Okumagba, group managing director/CEO, BGL plc, said they will continue to discuss with the power minister to ensure that a number of disposed power companies come to the market.
According to Okumagba, who is also the chairman of the annual workshop, “the capital market will offer the Discos the financial capacity to finance their expansions.”
Speaking further on the workshop, which holds from April 23-25, 2014, with the theme “Update on the transformation agenda and expectations from the public and private sector,” he noted that focus would be on trade and investment, power and agriculture.
On agriculture, he said: “We are very concerned about the value chain around agriculture. We want to work with the ministry of agriculture to connect this value chain to commodities exchange.”
Earlier in this speech, Muritala Ariyo Olushekun, president and chairman of council, CIS, said these critical sectors which the workshop will focus on “are of strategic importance to the realisation of the vast potentials of the Nigerian economy, and reinvigoration of the capital market.”
Through this platform, the CIS has in the past two years collaborated with and engaged key arms and agencies of government – the presidency, the National Assembly, Federal Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, among others – as part of its contribution to national development, Olushekun noted.
The workshop, which is expected to host government delegates, regulators, and other stakeholders in the Nigerian economy from both the public and private sectors, “could not have come at a better time, as it holds great promises to contribute immensely to the transformation, not only of the capital market, but the national economy as a whole,” he said.
