Indications have emerged that the Ministry of Finance may soon approve a request by the Nigerian Stock Exchange to restructure bad loans of operators in the capital market.

A reliable source in the ministry told our correspondent on Friday that the Finance Minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had received the request from the NSE, and was set to approve the appeal.

The source said, “The NSE has written the MoF on the issue. Although, it has not been approved, it has got to the minister. It should have been approved if not for the fuel subsidy problem. What the MoF will approve is loan restructuring, which debtors in other sectors have got.”

Also, the Managing Director, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, told our correspondent that the corporation had submitted its report to the MoF.

“We have worked and submitted our report to the MoF. The stage we are right now like I told you before is the stage of asset management. We have called on various debtors for loan restructuring so what they are asking for is not new to us,” he added.

The Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, had said during a press conference on the 2011 Market Review and 2012 Outlook of the Nigerian capital market in Lagos that it was working with the AMCON to ease the plight of stockbrokers on margin loans.

He noted that the Exchange needed to get clear terms of action from AMCON so that the brokers would know how to handle their balance sheets as regards the debt overhang arising from the margin debts.

He said, “We have been advocating on behalf of the broker-dealer community with the different governmental agencies that can actually do something about this debt overhang, and what we needed to get from AMCON was a definite answer so that broker-dealers would be able to know how to treat their balance sheet. The law provides that the only person that can give the type of forbearance that we are asking for is the MoF acting on the instruction of the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

“The board of AMCON has written to the CBN asking that they support this forbearance for brokers that would remove the debt overhang, and the CBN has agreed and also written to the MoF, and we, the NSE, have in turn followed the process through to the MOF. Right now I can tell you that the MOF is reviewing it.”

Source: Punch/Ademola Alawiye