The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is to be listed on the stock market in the next three years, its Director-General, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, said on Monday. Okereke-Onyiuke made this known while briefing the House of Representatives' Committee on Capital Market in Abuja.

Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, DG, NSE

The listing, which is referred to as demutualisation, will give private investors the opportunity to trade in NSE's shares in the capital market. Okereke-Onyiuke said that the NSE's Council had already set up a committee to design a blueprint for the implementation of the demutualisation process. She, however, conceded that the Federal Government's directives delayed the process on the need to suspend the demutualisation, saying that the country was not ripe for it.

She said that the government then felt that it was not proper to allow private shareholders, particularly foreigners, to take over the NSE because of its central role in the country's economy. Okereke-Onyiuke said that demutualisation would enhance the financing opportunities of the NSE, while improving efficiency in the management of the agency. She disclosed that the capital market had witnessed an increase in capitalisation from N5.12 trillion in 2006 to 13.3 trillion in 2007.

She said that the total "turnover value'' of the shares traded on the floor of the NSE also rose from N470 billion in 2006 to N2 trillion in 2007. Okereke-Onyiuke expressed the confidence that the current trend of growth in the capital market would be sustained in 2008. Besides, she said that the primary market would be busy this year, as insurance companies had formalised their merger arrangements. She noted that the re-capitalisation of some insurance firms had started, using available market instruments.

Okereke-Onyiuke said the immediate challenge now was the cost of transactions in the market, induced by VAT charges on stockbrokers' commission and other transaction fees by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).