ASHON unfolds new initiatives, seeks abolition of contract stamp

As part of its efforts to impact the Nigerian financial market and entire economy positively, the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) has initiated new measures to reposition its advocacy roles.

Besides, the registered Trade Group has strengthened its secretariat by appointing an Executive Secretary and Research Officer to support the management in driving its corporate vision and core values.

Addressing ASHON’s 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos recently, the Chairman, Chief Patrick Ezeagu explained that the Association had come of age and some initiatives have been put in place to strengthen its advocacy functions in line with the operational philosophy.

According to him, ASHON recruited the Executive Secretary, Athan Ogbozor to run the secretariat as part of the strategic plan to leverage on human capital to drive the new initiatives which are also designed to enhance service delivery to the members.

Ezeagu identified some of the initiatives as new recruitment of strategic staff, Registration with the a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a Trade Group, promotion of Commodities and Futures Exchange, negotiation of members’ interest on the on-going demutualization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and strengthening relationship with other trading platforms to expand income generated by members beyond the NSE.

According to him, ASHON has also successfully handled the tension raised by the pressure mounted on the members by the FIRS and NIPOST with regards to the payment of contract stamp duty.

“We are advocating the abolition of contract stamp in our market and negotiating a new regime of fees for brokers and also discussing Back Office and Cloud hosting.