Trading session at NSE
By Goddy Egene
The NASD Limited, which was has been granted an Approval-in-Principle (AIP) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate Over-the-Counter (OTC) market in Nigeria, is finalising its trading rules and is targeting the last quarter of this year to commence operations.
NASD Limited was formed in 1998 to promote and operate an OTC market open to all interested registered securities dealers in Nigeria. It has been working towards putting in place an organised OTC market in place. SEC gave its approval last year.
It had planned to commence operations late last year but that was not possible as it was sourcing for funds and how to get a trading platform among other issues.
However, the Chairman of Technical Committee of NASD Limited, Mr. Victor Ogienwonyi, told THISDAY last Monday that the trading rules were being finalised and operations would likely begin in the last quarter of the year after getting the final approval of SEC.
According to him, since getting the AIP of SEC, the promoters of the project had been working round the clock to ensure a smooth take-off of operations.
According to him, N500 million had been raised by the company from 51 operators while vendors for the trading platform had been streamlined to three from the 11 that applied to supply the platform.
He disclosed that a permanent office had been secured for the company on Marina, Lagos, while key staff members had been recruited.
“We are finalising our trading rules and hope to take off fully by last quarter of this year after getting approval from SEC. We intend to have an all-asset trading platform that will trade from simple money market instruments like commercial paper through equities to bonds, including simple derivatives like foreign exchange options and futures.
“Our intention is to trade all non listed Public Liabilities companies (PLCs) in a very transparent manner; thereby expanding the market for securities and complementing the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)”, he added.
Before now, Chairman of NASD Limited, Mr. Tola Mobolurin, had said that the NASD would provide capital raising windows to all qualified public sector and corporate entities especially small-to-medium sized companies seeking to raise capital and for investors seeking to trade existing securities on a transparent platform.
“It would also provide a liquidity window for investors and fund managers who invested in public unquoted companies and expand opportunities for Pension Fund Administrators who are required to invest only in publicly traded securities,” he said.
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