Shareholders of Central Securities Clearing System Limited have approved the conversion of the company to Public Limited Company (PLC) as part of efforts to reposition it and become  more competitive.

The conversion was approved at the 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos recently, following a proposal by the board to that effect.

The shareholders also authorised  the company secretary to make all alterations in the memorandum and articles of the company, in line with its new status as a PLC.

Speaking at the AGM, the Chairman of CSCS, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said  the  new status would strengthen the corporate governance and expand the ownership, noting  that with the new status, CSCS had opportunities to innovate more in so many areas.

“The board is looking at strengthening governance  by bringing  in  independent directors to strengthen the composition of the board. We also want to have an audit and risk management committee to make sure that  we carry everybody along,” he said.

Onyema disclosed that the company in 2011 generally toed the path of  reformation, explaining that in the quest  to strategically reposition CSCS,  the board of directors made the decision to engage individuals with proven expertise to enhance the vision and goals of the company as  the board  strives to attenuate its  commitment to shareholders.

“This singular decision spawned a rigorous recruitment process that culminated in the appointment of a new Managing Director, Mr. Kyari Bukar, in September 2011,” he said.

With regard to company’s performance, the chairman said  the value of trades cleared and settled, stood at N634.92 billion while volume of   trades cleared and settled was 89.6 billion shares.

He added that the number of lien transactions stood at 343,   certificate requests were 20 and the value and number of dematerialised shares were 61.23 billion and 528,994 respectively.

“In 2011, your company actively participated in actualising the extensive work-in plan geared towards buoying the Nigerian capital market. We particularly take pride in stating that CSCS played a fundamental role in the listing process of the first ETF with its appointment as sub-registrars to the issue. Our staff have also been involved in making contributions towards the legal reform process of Capital Market Laws and actively involved in various sub-committees of the capital market committee (CMC),” Onyema said.

Speaking in the same vein, Bukar said the company was seeking ways of diversifying its businesses to ensure   sustained revenue.

“We are exploring new initiatives and basically enhancing our income potential. We have identified several areas where we could actually bring income to the company. The amount of data we have about investor and investor behaviour can be utilized for the benefit of the company and stakeholders as well as partners who may be needing such information on a daily or periodic basis. There are others that we are developing,” he said.

Source: Thisday/Goddy Egene