By Adedapo Adesanya
NASD Plc has said it was expanding its product offerings and services to cater to the new business and capital raising environment for securities listed on its platform.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director/CEO of NASD Plc, Mr Bola Ajomale, adding that the company will become the hub for capital formation in West Africa.
He made this disclosure at the company’s recent annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos.
“We have embarked on a material technology overhaul that will improve our scope, efficiency and effectiveness as an OTC market. We shall continue to deliver our objectives to all stakeholders in NASD Plc,” he said.
Mr Ajomale noted that NASD had since inception been committed to providing innovative solutions that are reliable, resilient and functional.
“We recognise the new opportunities that are arising out of this situation and intend to remain versatile and flexible to maintain market operations while providing capital raise services to enterprises that now have an even more pronounced need for the capital market,” he stated.
According to him, the company shall continue improving its operational efficiency by investing in its existing structure, using scalable technology and driving innovation.
“In line with our objective to be the market of choice especially for growing companies, our enterprise portal (NASDeP) has remained open and continues to attract the attention of pre-IPO companies. We had initially expected to match such companies to private equity investors who would provide managerial capacity in addition to capital,” the CEO said.
In his address, Chairman, Board of Directors, NASD Plc, Mr Olutola Mobolurin, said exchange exposed some draft rules to the public in 2019 in furtherance of its efforts to ensure an orderly market and expand service offerings
The rules, according to him, include Rules for executing Negotiated Deals, Admission of Rights Issues, Admission of Commercial Papers and Registration of Sub Brokers.
According to him, they expect these rules to further improve transparency and price discovery on the market thereby expanding its base.
Dipo Olowookere