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‘Financial market participants play important role in stabilising economy’

By Helen Oji
09 November 2020   |   3:58 am
FMDQ Holding Plc has said financial market participants have continued to play an important role in stabilising Nigeria’s economy by providing avenues for governments, corporates, and individuals to efficiently raise capital....

FMDQ

FMDQ Holding Plc has said financial market participants have continued to play an important role in stabilising Nigeria’s economy by providing avenues for governments, corporates, and individuals to efficiently raise capital, transfer value, and manage their risks despite the challenging business environment.

The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Bola Onadele, stated this at the unveiling of winners of its 2020 GOLD Awards. He acknowledged the efforts of market participants in remaining relentless in their quest to deepen the Nigerian financial market despite the 2020 challenging business environment.

The FMDQ GOLD Awards underscored by the tenets of FMDQ’s GOLD (Global Competitiveness, Operational Excellence, Liquidity and Diversity) agenda, has become a corporate tradition of the company to recognise demonstrated resilience and agility of the financial market players.

It also acknowledges the efforts of stakeholders whose participation in the FMDQ markets and across the financial market infrastructure (FMI) value chain of FMDQ’s business – between the review periods of October 2019 to September 2020, have positively shaped the markets and invariably impacted economic development.

According to Onadele, the 2020 awards attracted the attention of local and international stakeholders, with awards across the Primary Market, Secondary Market, FMDQ Members’ & Clients’ Choice (as nominated and voted by FMDQ Members/Clients), and FMDQ Leadership segments.

He explained that the “2020 GOLD Awards saw 31 Award categories and 34 Award winners, with joint winners in two categories. Winning for the third time in a row, Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited bagged the award for the Primary Markets Champion – Capital Markets Securities Origination Award.

“Stanbic IBTC Bank, also for the third time, emerged the Secondary Markets Champion, winning the FMDQ Dealing Member Award, amongst six other Awards were the Stanbic IBTC entities; Dangote Group won four awards, with three bagged by Dangote Cement PLC, including the Largest Corporate Bond, and the Largest Commercial Paper Awards.

“Chapel Hill Denham won three Awards, including the FMDQ registration member (Listings) and the most active securities lodgement sponsor awards. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bagged the Financial Market Regulator Market Transformation Initiative Award for the provision of enabling regulatory environment for Central Counterparty (CCP) in Nigeria through the release of CCP rules and granting of an approval-in-principle for CCP – FMDQ Clear Limited. NSE was also recognised for fostering the derivatives market development, and the release of the Rules on Regulation of Derivatives Trading, as voted by FMDQ Members and Clients.”

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) was also recognised with the FMDQ Capital Market Catalyst Award, for the facilitation of enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, which has the potential to significantly impact the Nigerian capital markets.

Onadele added than an independent validation exercise was carried out by Ernst & Young Nigeria, a global leader in assurance services to maintain the integrity of the awards in line with best practices,

Acknowledging the finalists and nominees, and congratulating the 2020 FMDQ GOLD Awards Winners, the Group Chairman, FMDQ Group, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, in a virtual address, noted that 2020 has been a truly challenging, yet rewarding year; and has stretched the resilience of the market, while providing opportunities to deepen the markets.

According to him, FMDQ Group commenced the year with great optimism, as it became a Capital Market Holding Company, and Africa’s first vertically-integrated financial market infrastructure group, with four market subsidiaries, even as the group remains committed to the actualisation of its GOLD Agenda.

Also commending the winners and all the stakeholders for their efforts at making Nigeria globally competitive, the Director-General, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Lamido Yuguda, represented by the Executive Commissioner, Operations, Temidayo Obisan, reiterated the commitment towards collaborating with the financial market stakeholders.

He assured of appropriate market structures, creating an enabling environment, building a transparent and efficient market, and ultimately reducing systemic risks and protecting investor interests.

Expressing her delight at the innovative strides of the FMIs, including FMDQ, and other market participants, Ms. Arunma Oteh, Academic Scholar at the Oxford University, United Kingdom and a former Treasurer/Vice President at the World Bank, also congratulated the winners, nominees, finalists and other stakeholders within the wider ecosystem, for their contributions towards deepening the Nigerian financial market.

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