The Nigerian Stock Exchange has announced plans to introduce issuers’ portal in the Nigerian capital market.
A statement from the NSE on Thursday said that the portal, which would be known as X-Issuer, was one of the new initiatives of the NSE to boost trading activities.
The statement added that the new portal, to be inaugurated in the next two weeks, would allow online information submission for enhanced interaction between the Exchange and listed companies.
The Head, Listings Regulation, NSE, Mrs. Josephine Igbinosun, explained in the statement that the X-Issuer is a secure online portal through which issuers would submit financial and other information to the market from the comfort of their offices.
She said that the portal would not only encourage transparency and accountability but it would also expedite the discharge of Issuers’ post-listings obligations relating to structured and continuous disclosures.
She also stressed that X-Issuer would eliminate leakage of price sensitive information because of the minimal time between submission by the Issuer and release to the market.
She said, “The portal will offer unique benefits of data capture, form submission validation and other ancillary services such as submission notification mechanisms and tracking of submitted information.
“With this, listed companies no longer need to submit hard copies of information to the Exchange by post, hand delivery or courier.
“The X-Issuer will also facilitate comparison of data by international and local investors and analysts, giving issuers greater visibility in the market, and the mandatory electronic submission will put in place better coordination that will ensure information from companies is released to the market accurately and in a timely manner.”
She recalled that in a bid to enhance the overall user experience, the Exchange commenced a User Acceptance Test with a number of listed companies, providing training to build capacity and requisite know-how of the new electronic submission system, as quality and knowledge transfer are key success factors.
“At the Exchange, we intend to be well-positioned to adapt our business to meet the needs of our clients for overall operational efficiency. X-Issuer once again demonstrates our commitment to building an African Institution that competes effectively,” Igbinosun added.
The Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, had announced plans to roll out additional Exchange Traded Funds before the end of the year and explained that it was to deepen the Nigerian market, as well as to ensure that the $1tn market capitalisation goal by 2016 was achieved.
He said that the opportunities for further growth in the market was endless, adding that the Exchange was putting things in place to ensure that the market took advantage of such opportunities.
