NSE Commences Internet Trading, Upgrades System

In a bid to commence full remote trading, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said it hopes to complete its system upgrade by first quarter 2009 which will aid internet trading.
Ndi Okereke Onyiuke, director-general, NSE, disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos last week. “The Exchange which commenced the upgrade of its trading software last year hopes to complete it early in 2009,” she said.
 “Expectedly, the upgrade to the latest version of the Horizon comes with improved functionalities that would impact positively on the trading on the Exchange, especially with regards to derivatives and bond trading in the years to come. It will also help the stockbrokers to trade anywhere in the country and the world. Even after the upgrade, the internet trading would commence anywhere there is a computer with internet facilities.”
In her review of the performance of the stock market in 2008, the NSE boss said: “During the year, the NSE commenced and concluded the construction of a state-of-the-art data centre in our premises. The construction of the data centre was in consonance with the Exchange’s strategy to leverage on technology to drive its businesses and continually serve stakeholders’ needs.”
“The facility was built in accordance with industry best practice and will accommodate all our IT and power equipment necessary for meeting the strategic growth objectives of the Exchange and its market,” she informed.
“As we go into the New Year, the NSE will leverage on this facility to serve the market better, especially with regards to the dissemination of market data (giving live feed to financial information vendors) and remote access to the trading engine.”
However, the NSE officially introduced Nigerian Journal of Securities and Finance (NJSF) to aid scholars in the tertiary institutions. Onyiuke explained that the journal is a referee and accredited scientific half-yearly publication of the NSE.
“The NJSF publishes theoretical, empirical and policy articles in the following disciplines and cognate subjects: Securities Trading, Money and Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Banking and Finance and Economics. The mission of NJSF is to publish and disseminate scientific knowledge from any academic school of thought.”
She said informed that authors may prepare papers for the journal on country-specific capital market or economic issues, although issues of international/cross-country coverage will also be entertained; and the views expressed in the articles in the journal are personal to the authors and do not in any way reflect the official position of the NSE.
Onyiuke added that contributors of articles are requested to follow the guidelines to ensure speedy processing of materials for the journal.
“Submission of an article to the NJSF presupposes that the author is committed in publishing in the journal and that the same article is not being simultaneously submitted to any other publication nor has it been published elsewhere,” she stated.