By Our Correspondent

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Tuesday announced the appointment of six (6) Dealing Member Firms on its Bourse as Fixed Income Market Makers.

This is coming on the heels of the appointment of Market Makers in its Equities Market in the Second Quarter (Q2) of year 2012; but subsequently commenced operations September 18 2012.

The NSE in a Statement by Wole Tokede, Head of its Media Relations and made available to www.investaadvocate.com.ng announced the names of the six (6) Dealing Members as Capital Bancorp; Cordros Capital; ESS/Dunn Loren Merrifield; FSDH Securities; Greenwich Securities and GTB Securities.

Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Executive Director (ED), Business Development of the Nigeria’s Exchange said the unveiling of the six (6) Firms for Retail Bonds Trading was a major step towards making Fixed Income Securities accessible to the investing public.

Jalo-Waziri affirmed that it’s a great milestone and a major step in turning the Market around as this will make it more liquid in the retail side as well as promote portfolio diversification.

He further affirmed that the Companies selected went through a very rigorous process and met the additional net capital requirement of N500 million. “We also examined their compliance history and looked into their operational capabilities, technology and processes” he saids.

“The selected firms were taken through exercises, debated the appropriate Market structure to be used and The Exchange further went through the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the selection process” Waziri said.