Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill allowing the stock exchange become a publicly listed company that can issue shares to investors.
This was based on a report of the House Committee on Capital Market and Institutions on a Bill for an Act to Facilitate the Development of Nigeria’s Capital Market by Enabling the Conversion and Re-registration of the Nigerian Stock Exchange from a Company Limited by Guarantee to a Public Company Limited by Shares; and for Related Matters.”
The passage was in line by Oscar Onyema, chief executive of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), last week that the bill would be signed into law this year.
With this, the bill will be sent to the President Muhammadu Buhari for assent, following the passage of the bill by the Nigerian Senate in December.
These followed last year’s approval by members of the exchange, mostly stockbrokers and some institutional investors, to become a publicly listed company.
The exchange has around 200 listed companies and plans to launch exchange-traded derivatives securities this year. It has not said whether it would list via an initial public offering or raise new monies.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the continent’s most developed stock market, has been a listed company since 2006.
The equities market in Nigeria was the third best-performing market in the world in 2017, gaining 42% after the central bank liberalised the naira for foreign investors, a move which lured back funds that been pulled out at the peak of a currency crisis.
