A new vista of opportunities for intending investors into the forth coming Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Nigerian Sports Lottery (NSL) Plc has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Under the new arrangement, the shares to be sold would be made available in equal numbers to each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Besides, the IPO, which is suppose to open today and close on August 20, 2008, would afford more Nigerians the opportunity of participating in the offer.

It is, however, the first time an offer would be open to subscribers on a state-by-state base in the history of the capital market.

Giving explanations on the reasons for the state-by-state allotments, the Chief Executive Officer of NSL, Dr. Odunlami Kola-Daisi said it is to give the company a national outlook and enable investors nationwide to own the company's shares.

He added that jingles and adverts would precede the offering and it would be done nationwide.
Allotment procedures mean that indigenes of each state and the FCT are able to subscribe to 21,621,621 units. When completing the application forms, subscribers would be expected to quote the reference numbers for their states of origin in the appropriate boxes.

At the end of the offer, allotment would be done on a state by state basis. In effect, the 21,621,621 units would be allotted to the indigenes of each state subject to the approval of the SEC.

A total of 800,000,000 units of NSL shares are on offer at a price of N15.50 per share. An individual subscriber can apply for a minimum of 1,000 shares and additional units of 100 thereafter. As at the weekend, modalities for the distribution of offer documents across the country have been finalised.
According to the Joint Issuing Houses to the IPO, the initial thinking was to open the application list on Monday, June 16, 2008 and close it on Friday, July 11, 2008.

However, after putting into consideration the logistical challenges posed by the need to make the offer documents available across the country on the day the offer opens and to ensure that no locality is disadvantaged, it was decided to push back the offer opening date by one month.
As a result of the foregoing, the offer would now open on Monday, July 14, 2008 and close on Wednesday, August 20, 2008. This, it is believed, would afford more Nigerians the opportunity of participating in this 'very' national patrimony.

Odunlami Kola-Daisi welcomed this more, because according to him 'NSL Plc is a very unique business, first of its kind in Nigeria,' introducing lottery on a national basis, and at the same time taken Nigeria closer to an economic giant by making it a cashless society in the shortest possible time.