Reps May Compel Telecoms, Others to List on Stock Exchange

Yakubu Dogara, speaker, House of Representatives, said it may legislate to compel multinational oil, gas and telecommunication companies to list a certain percentage of their value on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Dogara said this when he received members of the Nigeria-United Kingdom Capital Market Project in Abuja.

He contended that there was no justification for the non-listing of multinational oil, gas and telecommunication companies on the NSE. The Speaker commended the Memoranda of Understanding between stock exchanges of both countries.

He said that big companies in the listed sectors must be compelled to list on the capital market in order to deepen the market and make capital available for investors and create employment.

“Apart from capital inflow sought, the market needs to be deepened, as most of the big International companies in Nigeria are not participating in the Nigerian Stock exchange. “This is sad because these companies account for a huge percentage of revenues in oil, communication and energy”, Dogara said.

Earlier, Mr Aigboje Imoukhede, President, Nigeria Stock Exchange and co-Chairman Nigeria-U.K Capital Market Project, and Sir Rogers Gifford, who is leading the UK team, said the aim of the project was to increase capital flow.

“This is to ensure capital markets utilisation for mutual development.” He said Nigeria had been identified as one of the three exciting countries to work with saying, “a study is on to improve the market structure to attract more investors to expand the market.” The NSE boss said Nigeria and U.K stock exchanges had signed MoU they hoped would be adhered to but that some aspects of their plan needed legislative actions to implement.