Inadequate capital weakening stockbroking firms, says Aig-Imoukhuede

Inadequate or outright lack of working capital has been described as a major hindrance to the performance of stockbroking firms in the country.The immediate-past President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, who made the observation at the official commissioning of the office complex of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) in Lagos, said Nigerian economy depends on the capital base of a typical stockbroking firm to play the required role in the funding of development projects.

“In my role as a council member, I have had deep insights to the minimum resources required to meaningfully carry out the full broker-dealer function and most stockbroking firms in Nigeria are unable to meet this.“It is fair to say that every business has at least one thing in common- the goal to make money. What they don’t have in common, however, is how they choose to go about bringing in that money.

“Many businesses fail to achieve their most important goal. Why? Most often, it’s not due to lack of customers, but a lack of strong working capital, which unfortunately is reflective in Nigeria’s stockbroking industry,” he said.Aig-Imoukhuede therefore, advised the stockbrokers to take the advantage of emerging technologies to enhance their performance.

“With the advancement in technology and the forces of globalisation, which are influencing the taste and lifestyle of consumers to converge at a more sophisticated level of need from providers of services, technology-enabled solutions have become a must and not a ‘nice to have’”, he said.He said advancement in technology has helped brokers provide tailored and personalised portfolio management services which has helped foster the relationship between the broking and fund management industries.

The financial expert urged stockbrokers in Nigeria to continually enhance their knowledge in order to meet the constantly evolving needs of these sophisticated investors.
“The Chartered Institute of Stock brokers (CIS), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) need to raise the bar on capacity building. They need to play a more active role in nurturing and aiding capacity building.

“Based on this understanding, a stockbroker was expected to convince the holders of savings at both the Institutional and retail level of the viability of this plan and defend the price at which these securities were being offered to the public. Stockbrokers catalyze the velocity of the Capital formation process and create an ever expanding Capital Markets”, he said.

He challenged stockbrokers to make conscious efforts to drive capital formation, adding that the larger the size of the value creation cake the bigger the commission and reward attached to the stockbroking function.

“The issue here is that in all advanced market economies, members of the Stockbroking profession rank amongst the wealthiest Citizens. For context let us compare ourselves to Europe, North America and Asia, hate them or love them the significantly higher earnings of your contemporaries in these markets are a reflection of the societal value of the profession. The geographical area known as ‘’Stockbroker belt’’ which is a wealthy residential suburb in Britain can shed some more light on this”.

Nigeria’s oldest living stockbroker, Otunba Olasubomi Balogun, who was also present at the occasion was a good example of a Nigerian, who has created tremendous wealth for himself in the stockbroking business.