FG, NGX to Attract Startups to Stock Market

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The federal government has expressed its readiness to work closely with the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited to attract startups to the stock exchange.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, said the government would use the newly created NGX Technology Board to achieve this goal.

Speaking at a tech event themed Invest in Africa’s Future- Let’s Talk About Exits on Thursday in the United States, he noted that Nigeria had been grappling with its over-dependence on oil in the last few years, adding that diversifying from heavy reliance on a single sector like the oil industry often requires increasing productivity in other sectors.

According to him, this can be achieved through the application of technology and innovation, something the current leadership of President Bola Tinubu is particular about.

Listing his goals and ambitions, Mr Tijani said the Ministry would work on creating a regulatory environment for fintechs, access to funding, especially from angel investors, improve digital infrastructure, facilitate the export of tech products and services and collaborate with NGX on tailored listing options for startups via its Technology Board.

“We cannot do all of this as a country if we do not prioritise innovation and encourage entrepreneurs to build. Nigeria is now open to investments.

“We want to prioritise the ability of our technology companies to export products, and we are targeting Africa first and then eventually start selling to the rest of the world,” the Minister said at the event jointly organised by the NGX and Future Africa, supported by Stanbic IBTC, CardinalStone Partners and Chapel Hill Denham.

Also speaking, the chief executive of NGX, Mr Temi Popoola, stated that the bourse would work assiduously to support the agenda of the Minister and the mandate of Mr Tinubu.

Whilst stating that technology is a big enabler of the capital market, Mr Popoola said that NGX is keen on fostering innovation in the capital market, potentially attracting a larger pool of investors and mature tech companies to list on its platform.

Explaining the challenges around listings, he stated that the demand for private capital currently outweighs public capital while revealing that the NGX is in discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on private markets to enable the exchange to do business with non-listed companies like startups.

“We will continue to do a lot of work that makes us able to attract local capital, and the day tech start-ups come to the exchange, we are confident that there would be a very good audience of investors that would want to own a bit of their shares. This is what we at NGX are doing by removing all barriers for that to happen,” the CEO said.

On his part, the CEO of Flutterwave, Mr Olugbenga Agboola, noted that his company was focused on the Nigeria project as most of its investible capital had been deployed to Nigeria since inception.

He added that the company would be looking at tapping opportunities created by the markets to scale and further deliver value to its customers and investors.

On his part, the CEO of Chapel Hill Denham, Mr Bolaji Balogun, expressed optimism that the Nigerian investment community gets the opportunity to participate in the capital formation going on in the tech sector rather than all the intellectual property that will emanate from it being controlled by foreign markets.