By Richard ABANGWU InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Tuesday announced the appointment of 13 Supplemental Market Makers (SMM).

According the Exchange, they received about 23 applications, after going through the process of assessing the Stockbrokers that qualify to play the role of a Supplemental Market Markers; only 13 Firms met the requirements.

Jalo Waziri, Executive Director, (ED) Business Development, while speaking at the event said the timely initiative would help create a favourable environment for competition and rapid transformation in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM).

Waziri affirmed that the SMM is one of the major strategies embarked upon by the NSE’s Management to increase Investors’ confidence, deepen the Market and address lack of liquidity. “The SMM program will support the existing Primary Market Maker (PMM) program” he said.

In the same vein, Abdulazeez Babalola, Head of Surveillance at the Nigeria’s Exchange while unveiling the criteria used by the NSE to select the Supplemental Market Makers, said due process was embarked upon.

According to him,  those seeking approval must be a licensed Broker-Dealers on at the Nigerian Bourse, be registered with Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) as a Broker-Dealer, “the must also meet the minimum Capital requirement set for SMMs on a continuous basis and have the experience, expertise and past performance in the Market” he said.

Others are operational capability in terms of appropriate staffing, technology and risk management tools, disciplinary history and Applicants must be in good standing with SEC, NSE and CSCS.

The NSE had earlier said the initiative will bring more liquidity in the Nation’s Stock Exchange. Apart from liquidity, it will bring more retail investors to the Nigerian Capital Market.

The 13 Firms appointed include Cordros Capital, Greenwich Securities, Partnership Investment Company Limited, FCSL Asset Management, Rencap Securities, Capital Bancorp, Magnartis Finance, FBN Securities.

Others are Stanbic IBTC, Capital Access, Investment One Financial Services, FSDH Securities and UBA Stockbrokers,

The NSE said that Supplemental Market Makers have the opportunity to become a Primary Market Makers after six (6) months if they perform well.