FG to Empower Local Investors to Boost Stock Market

March 12, 2019
Stock Market Newspaper

By Dipo Olowookere

For a long time, foreign portfolio investors had taken the driver’s seat in the Nigerian capital market, dictating the direction the market should go.

However, that may soon be a thing of the past as federal government is putting heads together to change the narratives for good.

Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, at a recent gathering in Abuja, said government wants to make domestic investors to take full control of the local capital market.

Speaking during a meeting with members of the Capital Market Master Plan Implementation Council in Abuja, Mrs Ahmed said government will most likely achieve this through improving the savings culture of Nigeria.

According to her, a National Savings Committee would be established to make recommendations to government on the best ways to mobilise savings that would lead to economic growth.

She said government was worried about the volatility of the capital market and was ready to work with the council to ensure stability in the market.

The Minister said government recognised the need for foreign investors in the capital market, and most importantly, the need to grow domestic investors that would stay.

“We need to grow domestic investments that will be here to stay, not just people that are shopping around for where to make profit alone. It is true that the current financial system is still tilted largely toward the banks.

“There is a need to look at all the players and help solve the problems. We are open to setting up the working group so we can have a review, extract recommendations and get to work. Those that can be done immediately, we will try to do them and the long term ones, we can then plan to do them as we move along,” the Minister said.

“The foreign investors come in and when anything happens, they quickly take their money and go away but our domestic investors will always be here with us,” she said further.

According to her, “We have worked assiduously to diversify from our overdependence on oil and gas and the first sector the President is interested in is in the agricultural sector.

“We know that we have not yet addressed the whole value chain and this can be driven if we have a very active commodities exchange market because our goods will be of high standards as required by industries in Nigeria and outside the country.”

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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