By Udeme Ekwere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has urged banks in the country to encourage the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to list their shares on the Exchange.

The Interim Administrator of the NSE, Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh, who made this plea, said encouraging SMEs to list their shares on the Exchange would boost activities and also aid economic growth.

Speaking at a capital market conference in Lagos, on Friday, he noted that the banks had a huge role to play in encouraging small firms to list their shares.

He noted that it was ultimately cheaper for SMEs to raise their much needed funds through the platform provided by the capital market.

He said, “It is important that we do all we can to encourage SMEs to list in the market, because these small companies are actually important for economic development. So, we call on the banks and other financial institutions to collaborate with us as part of strategies to facilitate the listing of these SMEs in the market.”

According to him, an international call centre has been established to provide prompt response to local and international investors’ enquiries. He added that investors’ questions and problems could be addressed by the staff of the centre, who would be able to speak three Nigerian languages, including French.

He noted that this was part of NSE’s plans to attract more foreign investors from neighbouring countries into the market, thus boosting activities.

Ikazoboh also noted that the recently extended trading hours had increased turnover on the NSE significantly.

According to him, the two-hour extension to the trading hours accounted for 50.52 per cent of shares traded in the first two months of the extension.

He added that the extension of the trading hours, which commenced on December 6, 2010, was one of the proactive steps being taken by the management of the NSE to improve activities.

He also appealed to stakeholders to take advantage of the NSE platform for bond trading.

The Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunma Oteh, also said that the commission had put measures in place to make the Nigerian capital market attractive for investment.

According to her, the NSE has constituted a marketing team charged with the responsibility of encouraging more firms to list their shares in the market. She added that the team would also meet with representatives of firms that had the intention of delisting from the market to advise them to reconsider their decision.

Source: Punch