By Habibat Aliu
Stakeholders have stressed the need to develop a more focused strategy that will support productivity and make the real sector more viable to ensure that manufacturers produce enough for consumption.
The stakeholders, who spoke at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) Made Of Africa Awards ceremony held in Lagos, also advocated the efficient operations of the market as an avenue to increase assets and create wealth for the nation’s sustainable growth.
Specifically, Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki said Nigeria can not continue to depend on importation, stating that the incessant high taste for imported goods among Nigerians has been detrimental to the economy in the past decades.
Nigeria has been an import-dependent economy for more than four decades relying on crude oil for almost 80 percent of its foreign exchange (forex).
The high value of imports by Nigeria has led to unfavorable trade balances, terms of trade, and even trade policies for the country.
Nigerians import goods that can easily be produced locally, as a result, many thriving local factories have folded up.
Also, thousands of Nigerians have lost their jobs, since local industries are closing down.
For instance, the textile industries in the Northern parts of Nigeria that used to employ thousands of Nigerians up till the early 1990s, are no longer in existence. Dumping has affected local products due to the heavy inflow of low-priced foreign goods that are pushed into the country.
Therefore, Obaseki urged the capital market community as an institution responsible for capital formation, to drive savings and deploy it to grow businesses in Nigeria.
He stated that Nigeria needs a fair, transparent, and efficient market, adding that most nations with stable economies have vibrant capital markets.
Founder and chairman of Coronation Capital Limited Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede stressed the need for a robust financial market infrastructure, noting that it will contribute to the stability and growth of the financial system as a whole.
According to him, innovations within the financial services industry are changing how firms and users deploy financial services and products.
“The reason it has been easy for us to move from zero users of digital assets to about 100 million across Africa is that those markets are the exchanges that can access those assets using 21st-century technology.”
Furthermore, he said a good regulatory framework and stronger operators are needed to attract a wide array of investments to the market.
” I think we are going to have a good regulatory framework. For the SEC, their counterparts across Africa are doing fascinating things, and it is time to see changes. The one thing the capital market community must push for is stronger operators and ensure that whoever would emerge in 2023 will be good for the market.”
Group Chief Executive Officer of NGX Group, Oscar Onyema said
that the NGX Group post-demutualization is focused on leveraging its position to seize opportunities in all aspects of the financing value chain on the continent.
He added that the group is investing across the entire capital market value chain and positioning itself as the core infrastructure for facilitating capital raising and efficient deployment to the most crucial needs of the country and the entire continent.
