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ASHON urges government to leverage opportunities in capital market

By Helen Oji
17 May 2017   |   4:05 am
What is the news are the efforts being made by the Federal and the private sector participations to reserve the recessionary trend and put the economy on a sound footing.

Nigerian Stock Exchange

The Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) has stressed the need for government at all levels to optimally utilise opportunities in Nigeria’s capital market for effective implementation of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP), infrastructure development and 2017 budget.

Addressing journalists at a press briefing to announce the forthcoming capital market summit, slated for Thursday, May 25, 2017, the Chairman of the Association, Patrick Ezeagu reiterated that government’s budget deficit and critical infrastructure development can be financed through the instrumentality of the capital market.

According to him, the market is a platform that primarily helps to mobilise funds from the surplus economic units and subsequently deployed to the deficit areas.

Furthermore, he added that the market creates a platform to identify means by which the federal government can salvage the economy.
Ezeagu noted that a cursory look at the operating environment presently reveals that a lot is still needed to be done in order to create the much-needed conducive business climate.

“It is no longer news that the recession has impacted negatively on all sectors of our economy. What is the news are the efforts being made by the Federal and the private sector participations to reserve the recessionary trend and put the economy on a sound footing.

“It is for this reason that we ASHON thought it fit to hold a one-day capital market summit to identify and advocate that the market can be a veritable route through which the federal government’s efforts at salvaging the economy can be realised.”

Ezeagu noted that the theme for the Summit: The Road to Nigeria’s Economic Recovery- The Capital Market Route, is designed to sensitise the federal government and other tiers of government as well as private sector players/investors on the critical roles the Capital Market can play towards the achievement of the objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and successful implementation of the 2017 budget.

“Indeed, the history of our Capital Market in Nigeria is robust with several times in the past when governments at various tiers took advantage of the market to raise funds to execute infrastructural projects.” Ezeagu said

While fielding questions from journalists, the Vice President of ASHON, Akinsola Akeredolu, said: “ If we say the capital market is the barometer of the economy and we have not started using it like the international model where people use the capital market to grow their economy, we are not using it optimally.”

Akin Akeredolu-Ale explained that the relative stability in the forex market and good corporate earnings are part of the factors driving the stock market currently.

He added that the summit is expected to come up with recommendations on how to turn around the economy and the capital market in particular.

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