By Chinwendu Obienyi
To deepen Nigeria’s capital market (NCM) and build capacity of stakeholders through financial literacy programmes, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and Bank of Industry (BOI) on Wednesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Lagos.
This, the two groups said will also facilitate market advocacy initiatives and promote listings.
The announcement was made during the signing ceremony led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NGX, Temi Popoola and the BoI CEO, Olukayode Pitan.
The MoU will see NGX, and BOI collaborate on driving capital market solutions through the promotion of retail participation and listings, enhancing information flow to stakeholders and supporting market developments that further deepen capital market advocacy initiatives.
Speaking during the ceremony, NGX’s boss, Temi Poopola noted that, the MoU waspart of the Exchange’s aim to promote the interest of stakeholders operating in the capital market, adding that the collaboration will support various advocacy initiatives to develop the NCM, promote information flow to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) about the capital market listing procedures and facilitate training for potential issuers on the various product initiatives.
“The NGX will work closely with BOI to create a seamless avenue for divestments through the listings of any of its investee companies on the Boards of NGX”, Popoola said.
For his part, the CEO, Bank of Industry, Pitan noted that the signing ceremony will enable the development bank and NGX to jointly develop programmes that will educate all stakeholders, especially Large Enterprises and Small & Medium Enterprises on how to access alternative financing options.
“Through this partnership with NGX, BoI will encourage companies in which it has equity holdings as well as its pool of current and past borrowers to approach The Exchange for initial public listings which will serve as a veritable window for divestments and access to wider funding options”, he added.
BoI’s mandate to promote capital market inclusion supported the expansion of over 3 million enterprises and created over 7 million jobs.
Additionally, capital base expansion saw the bank making successful forays into the international market and raised about $3.8bn in the last 4 years. This includes a $750mn syndicated medium-term loan in 2018 (fully paid); a €1 billion syndicated loan in March 2020; a $1 billion syndicated loan in December 2020; and in addition, a €750mn Senior Eurobond (the first by any African national DFI) in February 2022.