Economy
Rights Issue: Stockbroker Wants Forensic Audit of Lafarge Africa
By Dipo Olowookere
The newly inaugurated board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been urged to quickly conduct a forensic audit on Lafarge Africa Plc and other listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
This call was made by a stockbroker in the nation’s capital market, who incidentally is the Managing Director of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Mr Garba Kurfi.
On June 24, 2019, the federal government inaugurated the board of SEC with a directive to make the stability of the capital market a cardinal objective.
The nine-member board, under the chairmanship of Mr Olufemi Lijadu, was inaugurated by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who charged the members to bring their wealth of experience to bear in restoring investor confidence in the capital market.
The inauguration of the new board came after four years that the last board headed by a former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, was dissolved.
In a report by the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Kurfi was quoted as urging the board to ‘extend forensic audit to public companies whose activities were doubtful such as Lafarge Africa that floated rights issue in 2017 at N42 and another rights issue in 2018 at N12 per share.’
While appealing to the newly constituted board to ensure adherence to 10-year capital market master plan, he said it should also put things right by settling all outstanding issues.
Also giving a task to the board, Mr Sola Oni, a chartered stockbroker, said the board should address the issue of corporate governance gap in the commission by appointing a substantive director-general.
“This is necessary to remove the stigma of corporate governance gap from the commission,” he said, adding that the commission should not continue to operate with an acting director-general and acting commissioners contrary to ethics of corporate governance.
According to him, the new board should strengthen SEC’s advocacy role in the need for government’s constant engagement with stockbrokers before strategic decisions on the financial market operations would be made.
“The capital market should not be treated as a second class platform in the financial market,” Mr Oni said.
He said that there was the need for the harmonization of activities in the market to reduce the financial burden being imposed on stockbrokers in terms of training.
On his part, the Chief Operating Officer of InvestData Ltd, Mr Ambrose Omordion, said the new board should deepen the market by introducing new more trading windows such as cryptocurrency.
Mr Omordion said that they should ensure strong investment education across equity investment to boost investor participation to enhance liquidity in the market.
He said that SEC should partner with other financial market regulators to promote capital market growth and development.
Mr Omordion called for strong technology for easy monitoring back end of all listed and unlisted companies to avoid manipulation, insider trading and others.
Publicity Secretary of Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr Moses Igbrude, advised the SEC’s new board to make transparency, integrity and investors’ protection their watchwords.
“The capital market of any country is the barometer to measure its economy, they should ensure companies are properly managed in line with laid down rules and regulations.
“They should engage the companies to know their challenges, and carry such messages to the policy makers to formulate good policies that should enhance business growth,” Mr Igbrude said
He said that the board should engage the Federal Government on issues of multiple taxation, high interest rate, infrastructure deficiency and policy inconsistencies that affected businesses:
“This new board should make it a duty to bring more Nigerians into the market by ways of education, enlightenment to encourage them to know the importance of the capital market and how it can be used to create and grow their wealth.
“They should encourage more companies to list in the market by giving incentives and some privileges to listed entities over unlisted companies.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a loss of 1.13 per cent on Thursday, June 4, shrinking the market capitalisation by N30.03 billion to N2.630 trillion from N2.660 trillion on Wednesday.
Similarly, this brought down the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 50.19 points to 4,396.08 points from the 4,446.27 points recorded a day earlier.
The loss was influenced by the overpowering of the bulls by the bears, after the bourse closed with two price gainers and three price losers, led by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which slumped by N20.03 to sell at N190.38 per unit compared with midweek’s N210.41 per unit. Food Concepts Plc declined by 25 Kobo to trade at N2.50 per share versus the previous day’s N3.00 per share, and Acorn Petroleum Plc crumbled by 2 Kobo to end at N1.32 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1.34 per unit.
For the gainers, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc added N2.93 to close at N78.34 per share compared with the previous price of N75.41 per share, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 80 Kobo to settle at N16.80 per unit versus N16.00 per unit.
There was a slip in the volume of transactions yesterday by 46.8 per cent to 280,714 units from 527,221 units, as the value of trades dropped 66.5 per cent to N21.8 million from the preceding session’s N64.2 million, and the number of deals fell by 8.7 per cent to 42 deals from 46 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc ended the session as the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 64.7 million units traded for N4.4 billion.
GNI Plc also finished the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units exchanged for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The domestic stock market crashed by 0.37 per cent on Thursday as a result of the decline in the price of shares of McNichols, Eterna, Aradel Holdings, and others.
Business Post reports that investor sentiment remained weak after the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended the session with 25 price gainers and 31 price losers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
McNichols lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N7.74, ABC Transport slipped by 9.88 per cent to N6.20, Eterna shrank by 9.85 per cent to N29.75, Aradel Holdings depreciated by 9.51 per cent to N1,749.90, and NPF Microfinance Bank contracted by 8.45 per cent to N5.20.
On the flip side, International Energy Insurance gained 10.00 per cent to close at N6.60, Omatek improved by 9.73 per cent to N2.03, Abbey Mortgage Bank surged by 9.68 per cent to N8.50, Cutix expanded by 9.66 per cent to N3.18, and John Holt grew by 7.79 per cent to N14.90.
As for the sectorial performance, the industrial goods and banking indices chalked up 0.54 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively. But the energy sector depleted by 4.90 per cent, the insurance counter tumbled by 0.58 per cent, and the consumer goods index slumped by 0.03 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) dipped by 905.30 points to 242,227.31 points from 243,132.61 points, and the market capitalisation stumbled by N581 billion to N155.359 trillion from N155.940 trillion.
During the session, investors traded 588.5 million equities valued at N27.9 billion in 57,352 deals compared with the 923.0 million equities worth N42.3 billion transacted in 69,332 deals on Wednesday, showing a drop in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 36.24 per cent, 34.04 per cent, and 17.28 per cent, respectively.
The most active equity yesterday was Access Holdings with 109.7 million units sold for N2.6 billion, FCMB traded 35.6 million units valued at N384.2 million, NGX Group transacted 28.1 million units worth N3.9 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 26.9 million units for N3.3 billion, and Sterling Holdings recorded a turnover of 22.5 million units worth N176.1 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
A 0.1 per cent or N1,49 loss was recorded by the Nigerian Naira against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, June 4, closing at N1,358.75/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,347.26/$1.
In the same vein, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official FX market during the session by N5.39 to trade at N1,828.06/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing rate of N1,822.67/£1, but gained N6.75 against the Euro to sell at N1,574.83/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,584.39/€1.
At the black market and GTBank FX desk, the local currency traded flat against the Dollar during the session at N1,375/$1 and N1,372/$1, respectively.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that NFEM interbank FX turnover contracted to $128.117 million in 121 deals on Thursday from $133.731 million the previous day.
On the positive side, Nigeria’s external reserves moved closer to a 2009 high of $50 billion, enhancing analysts’ confidence about the local currency outlook in the second half of 2026.
This improvement has been helped by heightened global uncertainty, which has reduced the incentive for importers and corporates to demand FX, as cautious trade weighs on import needs. Analysts estimate a $40 billion net FX position for the year, a projection anchored in oil windfall gains.
As for the cryptocurrency market, prices extended steep weekly losses as the broader artificial-intelligence trade that has driven global risk assets since 2026 faltered.
The sell-off was led by equity and currency markets, with semiconductor stocks, Asian indexes and several regional currencies sliding in a broad risk-off shift.
Persistent outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs and a rare BTC sale by Strategy have removed a key source of support, leaving markets focused on Friday’s US jobs report for clues on Federal Reserve policy and the fate of the AI trade. The most valued coin slipped 3.6 per cent to $61,914.58.
Cardano (ADA) plunged by 17.6 per cent to $0.1630, Solana (SOL) declined by 7.0 per cent to $65.69, Ethereum (ETH) slipped by 6.9 per cent to $1,666.13, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 6.5 per cent to $0.8445, and Ripple (XRP) crashed by 6.5 per cent to $1.11.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 4.3 per cent to $581.45, and TRON (TRX) dropped 1.9 per cent to sell at $0.3261, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) gained 0.01 per cent each to sell at $0.9990 and $0.9998, respectively.
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