By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Federal Government and the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) have opened discussions in a bid to attract listings to the capital market via supportive legislation.
The Chief Executive Officer, NGX, Temi Popoola, stated this during the recent MTN Capital Markets forum which held in Abuja last week.
Whilst advocating that the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should accord priority to listed corporates in their procurement processes and access to foreign exchange (FX), Popoola revealed that the measures were pivotal to attracting more companies to list on the Exchange and mitigating the prevalent FX challenges in the economy.
He pointed out that NGX was excited with the new change in administration and its Renewed Hope Agenda as it presents opportunity to work with market stakeholders, including regulators to address challenges faced by government and listed corporates.
Popoola also revealed that the Exchange has opened discussions with the Federal Government to attract listings through supportive legislation, stressing that increased listings would boost government revenue, with transparency, higher tax contributions and better governance exhibited by listed companies.
He further revealed that the Exchange was working with the government to use the capital market to fix government problems of which enabling the execution of dollar-denominated transactions on NGX can address forex illiquidity.
He said, “There are companies that would like to list on our Exchange, but they earn in dollars, their revenue to their bottom-line is in dollars. There are also listed companies that would like to pay their dividends in dollars. However, the current regulation does not allow that. We are working with regulators and policymakers to try to address that because this would create a lot more benefit to the government who is looking for FX resolutions to their challenges. We believe this will also unlock the dollars that people have saved in domiciliary accounts to be put into useful work in the capital market and economy.”