In its bid to improve activities at the retail end of the market, the Nigerian Stock Exchange is to seek the collaboration of professional bodies.

The NSE’s Chief of Staff and Head, Corporate Division, Mr. Bola Adeeko, made this known at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said, to this end, the NSE would be organising an investor clinic to train major professional bodies on the gains of investing in the market, to enable them to pass the information to other people in the market.

He said, “The clinic, themed ‘Investing Strategies for the Prudent Investor’ will have experienced facilitators to moderate discussion on key areas such as investment fundamentals, market cycles and asset balancing through diversification.

“The investors’ clinic will involve key professional stakeholders such as the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Nigerian Bar Association, among others.

“The key issue here is that we want to use members of these professional bodies as a conduit to get more retail investors into the market, and the reason for this targeted approach is because we at the Exchange recognise that there are multiple and diverse stakeholders in the market, including the shareholders.”

He added that the clinic would be carried out in different stages to cater for different stakeholders’ groups to ensure that every one was carried along.

Adeeko also said that about 30 professional bodies would send between three and five participants to the clinic, adding that some dealing member firms would be involved in the training activities.

 ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…“The firms involved in the training process are dealing members on the Exchange with lot of experience as regards capital market investing. These firms include FBN Capital, Greenwich Trust and Stanbic Asset Management. They are also equity market makers,” he said.

Last month, the NSE had announced that it would be re-invigorating its Alternative Securities Markets segment with the aim of bringing more small businesses on board.

The Head, ASeM of the NSE, Mr. Frankline Nwaubani, said that the small companies remained the drivers of growth in the Nigerian economy.

He said, “We have several initiatives lined up to boost our equities market this year, and part of that is to ensure that more companies come on board to give investors more room to invest in our market.

“One of the initiatives we are looking at is the SMEs; we are targeting them because we know  their importance to any successful economy. Therefore, the NSE would be re-invigorating the ASeM, with the aim of rebranding it and revamping it.”

Source: Punch (by Udeme Ekwere)