Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, former Central Bank of Nigeria CBN Governor, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and a host of other eminent personalities have canvassed for digitisation of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and increased collaboration among key players in the nation’s economy, towards driving productive investments that would accelerate an elevated and digitized capital market.

They made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the maiden edition of the NGX capital markets conference themed: “The Future Ready Capital Markets; Innovating for Nigeria’s Sustainable Recovery”.

The event brought together leading policymakers, financial experts, business leaders, investors, international development partners and regulators, led by  Osinbajo and provided a platform to share insights and broaden the thinking needed for greater capital flows through innovative sources of financing for the capital market.

In his remarks, the Vice President stated that, “every smart investor must be looking now at how to be a part of the miracle of the Nigerian Unicorns, the about five or six indigenous Nigerian companies (driven by young Nigerians) that became billion-dollar enterprises since 2015 in the midst of two recessions.”

The Vice President, who emphasized the digital transformation of the markets, highlighted the many opportunities this move would provide for the capital markets, which includes bringing in more young investors.

He advised the adoption of technology “to bring in a new crop of young investors, many of who use their smartphones primarily for engaging with commerce and banking activities today. And you have commendably begun the journey to the digital transformation of the market, following the highly successful example of the banks and, of course, the telcos.”

The VP added, “today, the huge retail outlets already created by the telcos with well over a hundred million subscribers, the wide reach of banks, especially with the numerous financial inclusion initiatives, make this probably the most auspicious moment for digitizing the capital market to bring in the millions of new young retail investors.”

Urging the NGX to see itself as a critical player in the AfCFTA negotiations, the VP added that “we are at a point where we are looking at negotiating Service Rules, we have looked at Rules of Origin already, so this is the time to come into play to get the best deals possible from all our partners all across Africa.”

Prof. Osinbajo also pointed out that the Government-backed N15 trillion Infrastructure Fund being set up in partnership with the private sector will further help to bridge infrastructure gaps.

The VP observed that despite a significant withdrawal of foreign investors and domestic institutional participation in 2021, “the NGX in 2020 was the highest performing exchange with a return of 50% on the All-Share Index, when compared with 98 other exchanges tracked globally by Bloomberg.”

Also speaking after the conference, Mr. Temi Popoola, the Chief Executive Officer, NGX, expressed his excitement about the deliberations, outcomes and agreed way forward by key speakers and panelists.

He said, “as a major propeller of the economy, we are proud to be at the forefront of this milestone which is a defining moment for Nigeria’s finance sector and the capital market specifically.

“The long list of key stakeholders from the public and private sector in attendance at today’s conference shows how open NGX is to leveraging relationships and partnerships to advance its digital transformation agenda”.

“Taking this forward, NGX will continue to deepen and increase access to financial services for Nigeria through technology while championing the infrastructural development as well as the economic growth of the country,” Temi assured.

Held as a hybrid event, the inaugural capital market conference featured a long list of policy makers and business leaders across the public and private sectors in the country.

Present at the event were; Chairman, BUA Group, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of the Conference; Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, represented by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market; Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Executive Governor, Ekiti State and Chairman Nigeria’s Governors Forum; Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Executive Governor, Edo State; Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Executive Governor, Kaduna State; Group Chairman, Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Mr Abimbola Ogunbanjo; Chairman, NGX, Mr. Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Chairman, Coronation Capital; Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NGX Group Plc;  Mrs. Cathrine Echeozo, Director, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO); and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, (Dr) Zainab Ahmed,  among others.

Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said it had paid over N113 billion to depositors of money in commercial banks, microfinance institutions as well as primary mortgage banks currently in liquidation as of September 30, 2021.

Hassan Bello, managing director and chief executive of the corporation, made this known at the Editors’ Forum held in Lagos at the weekend, even as he assured that the deposit insurance corporation was working to ensure that liquidated banks’ depositors are paid on time.

According to him, the NDIC is in collaboration with the National Assembly to cause amendment to the NDIC Act in order to empower it to recover assets of banks in liquidation as quickly as possible.

He noted that the NDIC had paid a cumulative sum of N8.3billion to 443,946 insured depositors and N100.1billion to uninsured depositors of DMBs in-liquidation as of 30th September, 2021 while N3.4 billion was paid to 90,945 insured depositors of microfinance banks and N1.2 million to uninsured depositors.

In the same vein, cumulative insured amount paid to 1,553 depositors of closed primary mortgage banks as at 30th September, 2021 stood at N110.2 million while N7.9 million was paid as uninsured deposits.

He, however, admitted that payments had been slow due to the several court cases as well as the unwillingness of debtors to pay up.

“It takes a long time in paying depositors because at the point of closure we only pay the maximum insured amount and subsequently we now begin to realise the assets and pay depositors.

“We have commenced the process of strengthening our failure resolution and liquidation mandate through the improvement of our internal processes and procedures as well as enhancing effective collaboration with relevant stakeholders to ensure that the Corporation discharges its responsibilities more efficiently.

“This has become imperative given the need to implement prompt corrective actions on failing or failed insured institutions, improve our processes in addressing challenges in liquidation and, most importantly, provide timely reimbursement of insured sums to depositors of failed banks.

“We have the challenge of slow recovery, as a lot of people that borrowed from those banks don’t want to pay back and we also have the issue of slow judicial process, and currently we are liaising with the National Assembly to get the act amended in order to empower the corporation to be able to recover these assets as quickly as possible.

“The loans given by the banks in liquidation is actually the deposit of people, so we need to recover them as quickly as possible so that we can pay them. We also have cases with banks in court so we want a situation whereby those cases are given accelerated hearing so that we can quickly dispense with them.”

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has said that it would not go back on the proposed implementation of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS17) in insurance industry on January 1, 2023.

The commission, said in its efforts to get insurance firms ready for the new finance reporting model, it had set up sub-working groups to facilitate the migration.

Mr Olorundare Sunday Thomas, the Commissioner for Insurance, who stated this at the 2021 Insurance Directors’ conference held in Lagos, urged board members of each insurance firm to get prepared for the IFRS 17 implementation pointing out that the deadline for migration was already at hand.

“I want to urge you also to follow up on the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards. IFRS 17 in your companies. The implementation dateline of 1st January 2023 is right before us.

Sufficient capacity building engagements have been conducted and sub-working groups inaugurated to facilitate the migration. You are therefore required to ensure that your entities are in full compliance and ready for the dateline”, the commissioner charged.

He also urged the directors to take the issue of development of insurance in the country serious directing them to work closely with their management because a lot was expected from them at the top level.

“The Commission is working assiduously to open up the market particularly the retail end, conducting engagements with various agencies and state governments on the need to boost insurance culture across the country.
”However, the supply side which is the insurance companies must also be proactive with follow-ups in these places.

“If the industry is desirous of having significant impact on the nation’s GDP, it therefore must take retail business seriously. This has to start from the policy level and the directions clearly spelt out.

“This also must be supported with massive awareness campaign about insurance products across the geo-political zones taking into consideration peculiarity of each of the regions, “Thomas said.

He noted that one issue that has been setting the industry on a reverse gear in its developmental efforts was the issue of claims settlement.

He noted that amongst the operators, there were few operators that had been making the sector’s work a tedious one by not paying claims promptly.

He said operators should know as a fact that insurance business was about payment of genuine claims and anything short of that would continue to hurt insurance business in the country thereby giving the industry poor reputation, perception and image.