By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc has been celebrated for its commitment to market efficiency and growth at the BusinessDay Nigerian Investor Value Awards (NIVA) held last weekend in Lagos.
The firm was named as the winner of the Market Choice award for its outstanding counterparty trust assurance, broad asset class coverage and enhanced collaboration with market participants.
But the CEO of the organisation, Mr Haruna Jalo-Waziri, while receiving the award, said the award was a call for continuous improvement and a boost to CSCS’ tenacious commitment to delivering on market-efficiency initiatives.
“As we relish this recognition of CSCS as the Market Choice, we reiterate our kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement and restate our enthusiasm in furthering our partnerships with esteemed participants and broader stakeholders in our quest for mutual prosperity and in our drive towards enhancing market efficiency and growth,” he said.
Mr Jalo-Waziri used the occasion to remind his colleagues “that the reward of good work is more work. I know the stakes are higher as we have set new benchmarks, albeit I am more than ever optimistic in our capacity to do more and work with our participants in delivering better experience and value to investors in the Nigerian capital market.”
The CEO dedicated the “award to our esteemed participants, whose loyalty, support and constructive feedbacks continue to enhance our operations and broader service to the Nigerian capital market.”
He also thanked “the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the board of directors of CSCS for their diligent oversight and for ensuring sound governance which I believe is essential to every corporate’s sustainability and long-term value creation.”
The NIVA, previously known as the Top CEOs and Next Bulls Awards, has been jointly organised by BusinessDay and the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) since 2015.
It was conceived as a platform to celebrate the CEOs of listed companies that have delivered superior value to investors through operating efficiencies, organizational values, and market engagement activities.
The event was further expanded to include the CEOs of carefully vetted non-listed companies that could fill a pipeline of initial public offering candidates, particularly companies in which active and informed investors have expressed a strong demand to own their shares if their shareholders decide to take them public.
Over the past three years, the ordinary shares of CSCS, though not yet listed on the floor of the NGX, actively trades on the Nigerian Autonomous Securities Dealers Over-the-Counter (NASD-OTC) Exchange and has emerged as the most liquid and attractive stock on the NASD-OTC.
Last Friday, for instance, CSCS gained 65 kobo or 4.1 per cent to close at N16.65 per unit, consolidating its year-to-date gain to 10.6 per cent, compared to the current bearish performance of equities.
More so, the shares of CSCS have rallied 93 per cent over the past three years, in addition to the company growing its dividend payment by 36 per cent over the same period.
Remarkably, a total of 1.64 billion units of CSCS’ shares, valued at N27.06 billion (based on the current valuation of N16.50 per share) and representing 38.8 per cent or one-third of the total shares outstanding of the company has been traded over the past three years.
The liquidity of the shares is notwithstanding the fact that the top-5 largest shareholders closely hold about two-thirds of the company’s shares.
The liquidity of the shares of CSCS on the NASD-OTC platform reinforces the strong appetite and demand of retail and institutional shareholders to own CSCS’ shares.
In addition to the steady bull-run on the share price, CSCS’ steady dividend payment has been a major attraction to investors, who seek a stable return on investments.
