Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has said it has become necessary for telecommunications companies and others doing good business in the country to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The governor spoke on Thursday in Awka when the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, paid him a courtesy call at the Governor’s Lodge.

Obi said listing by big companies would encourage public participation in the wealth they were helping to create, as well as enable smaller investors to explore opportunities in bigger outfits and ensure stability of the capital market.

He urged companies to access funds from the NSE to expand their activities, as the exchange offered favourable lending conditions.

The governor urged people to invest more in stocks as they held the future of the economy and attributed the previous collapse of the market to lack of adequate information and poor enlightenment resulting to colossal losses.

Onyema said he was in the state to explore how the exchange could contribute to the economic development of the state and encourage more companies from the South-East region to be listed because of the new measures introduced to restore public confidence in the market.

He said the market capitalisation of equities in the market had gone up to $53bn and that the fixed income had equally gone up to $34bn.

Recently, the NSE said that it is set to reduce the listing requirements for companies seeking to raise capital from the Exchange.

Source; Punch (written by Emmanuel Obe)