Nigeria is to adopt Electronic IPOs (e-IPO). Already, a committee comprising of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Association of Issuing Houses of Nigeria (AIHN), Association of Stock Brokers (ASHON), Central Securities and Clearing System(CSCS), Institute of Capital Market Registrars (ICMR), Capital market Solicitor Association(CMSA), Fund Managers Association of Nigeria (FMAN), and NIBSS has been raised to facilitate the process.
Uduk said: “This poses a threat to the growth and development of the market in view of the fact that quite a number of them are highly capitalized companies. We are expecting the committee on listings would come up with strategies to attract new listings”.
The SEC boss who spoke on sundry issues said: “The Commission has updated its database for registration of CMOs. The SEC website now has a list of all CMOs and their functions.
“The Commission has issued a new set of Registration Certificates to operators without expiry dates. They are available at our head office and Lagos Zonal Office.
“The CMC noted that the distribution of electronic annual accounts of public companies has commenced. However, we also received feedback on concerns from some Shareholders Associations. The market will deliberate further on the matter while the pilot period of one year would be allowed to go on.
“The Commission is working with National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to institute a stand-alone capital market curriculum for basic and senior secondary education in Nigeria. To this end, Trade Groups made commitments at the meeting to support this initiative.
“On multiple subscriptions and forbearance for shareholders with multiple accounts, the forbearance window has now been extended to September 2018. Registrars have acknowledged that investors have started coming forward but there are challenges in the process. The CMC deliberated and recommended the appropriate Technical Committee to seek input and come up with recommendations to address the challenges. Therefore, we encourage all affected investors to come forward and take advantage of the window before the new deadline.
”The Technical Committee working on developing a vibrant commodities market for Nigeria presented its report at the meeting. The report will be exposed to the public to elicit comments and inputs from all stakeholders.
“The Technical Committee on Non-Interest capital market reported that the first sovereign sukuk was issued in 2017 and about 1,600 retail investors invested N5 billion on the instrument. The next level of engagements is to work with supra-national entities (such as IFC, AfDB), state governments, institutions (such as Federal Mortgage Bank, NMRC) to include sukuk options in their capital investment plans.
“The Technical Committee on E-dividend registration reported that the total approved mandates currently is about 2.5 million translating into 466,000 unique investor accounts.
“The deadline for the free E-dividend registration was 31 March 2018 and that has not changed. The new direction of the industry is that bank managers along with registrars will charge a token sum of N150 per mandate”
“On Direct Cash Settlement (DCS), CSCS noted that out of 5.1 million accounts with them only 1,191 have Direct Cash Settlement (DCS) subscriptions and only 15 out of 18 settlement banks have contributed to the DCS initiative. Considering the fact that DCS will instill confidence in the market, there is the need for all parties involved in the process to work harder to achieve a 100% migration.
