NSE moves to pay 343 investors under its Investors Protection Fund

THE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday said that a new arrangement had been perfected to fast track payment of claims to investors from its dormant Investor Protection Fund (IPF).

Mr Oscar Onyema, the NSE Chief Executive, disclosed this at the NSE 2014 Market Review and Outlook for 2015 held in Lagos.

He said that 343 claims were already approved for payment by the IPF Board of Trustees.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Onyema as saying that the 343 investors were from the first and second batches of verified claims under the rules of IPF.

Onyema said that the payment would commence soon after verification of claimants’ identity by an external consultant engaged by IPF Board of Trustees.

He said that the maximum claim to any investor had been pegged at N400, 000.

IPF was established to give investors statutory backed avenue for reducing the losses they suffered as a result of bankruptcy.

It will also cover losses arising from insolvency, negligence or wrongdoing by dealing members.

On NSE projections for 2015, Onyema said that the NSE would concentrate on strategies aimed at attracting more domestic flows into the market.

“We will fully engaged in programmes that will encourage more domesticc investors into the market and also intensify efforts towards developing a more sustainable market,” he said.

Onyema said that the NSE council and management had new plans to promote and strategise the Nigerian capital market as the hub for the growth of companies in Africa.

NSE executive said that the NSE would implement a more competitive pricing structure with other regulators and market participants in line with developments in other emerging markets.

He stressed the need for Federal Government to give more support to the capital market to drive growth and development of the market.

According to him, the market performance in 2014 showed that the NSE recorded 1.81 per cent increase in the total volume of shares traded in 2014.

He said that the volume of transactions grew by 1.81 per cent or 108.47 billion shares compared with 106.54 billion shares traded in 2013.

NSE boss said that the market’s impressive returns in the first half of 2014 was eroded in the second half of the year due the devaluation of the naira and crash of crude oil prices.

The other challenges include weak corporate earnings, national security challenges and elections uncertainty.

Onyema expressed optimism that market volatility would slow down by second quarter of 2015 after the elections.

He said that market attraction would improve with successful general elections.

Onyema also projected that the market would witness increased foreign direct portfolio investments following the nation’s status as the largest economy in the continent. (NAN)