•Delivers Power of Choice and Value to Issuers, Investors
Barely seven months after it becomes operational in August last year, FMDQ Depository Limited, on Monday announced its appointment as the depository of two choice bond issuances totaling N200bn.
The company, a member of the FMDQ Group Plc, has been named sole depository to the Lagos State Government ₦100bn Bond, and more recently, as a joint depository to the Dangote Cement ₦100bn Bond.
The Lagos State Government bond, the statement noted, is an indication of its alignment with progressive market development in Nigeria.
FMDQ commended Dangote Cement Plc for making “history by giving investors power, for the first time in the Nigerian capital market, to determine which depository to lodge their assets with.”
This, it added, has validated the vision of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) towards diversification and healthy competition in the Nigerian capital market, motivated by FMDQ’s global competitiveness agenda.
Since “FMDQ Depository is not saddled with the administrative task of allocating the International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), the Depository will remain focused on building its core competencies, including efficient and value-added service delivery to market stakeholders, which is the crux of the depository service,” the statement added.
To ensure operational efficiency and facilitate ease of implementing investors’ choice of depository, FMDQ Depository had been advocating, right from its inception, for the SEC-registered central securities depositories (CSDs) in Nigeria to embrace operational collaboration towards promoting the global agenda for interoperability between their systems, thereby effectively empowering investors to deal on their Exchange of choice in Nigeria, irrespective of which depository their assets are held.
Issuers currently benefiting from the complementary and unique depository services provided by FMDQ Depository for their CP issuances, among others, include Citibank Nigeria Limited, Eterna Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc.
Commenting, Chief Executive of FMDQ Group, Bola Onadele.Koko, expressed excitement “as we embark on another phase of implementing FMDQ’s GOLD Agenda – with the overarching objective of making the Nigerian financial market globally competitive, operationally excellent, liquid and diverse.
“FMDQ Depository completes the value chain of pertinent market infrastructure for the pre-trade, trade and post-trade spectrums provided by FMDQ Group – from listing to trading, clearing, settlement, asset servicing, and data & information, amongst other services.
“With the support and collaboration of its stakeholders, FMDQ’s much sought after goal of delivering power of choice to the hands of the investors has been actualized, and FMDQ Group remains committed to fostering prosperity to all its stakeholders, especially the issuers and investors, through FMDQ’s capital market value chain services.”
Recall that the FMDQ Depository was registered in June 2019 by the SEC, in an unprecedented and forward-looking market development posture, 26 years after the establishment of a sole depository in the Nigerian capital market. It thereby empowered issuers and investors with freedom of choice, value and enhanced service delivery.