The Chartered Institute of Sockbrokers (CIS) has said that with the right strategies in place and proper implementation, Nigeria’s economy can be reset to fast track to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.
Speaking at a press conference during the weekend on the 2017 proposed national conference, the Chairman, Organising Committee, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga said the institute sees the recession in the country as a temporary blip and is confident that with the right template, Nigeria can attain its rightful status as a global power.
He said the capital market which measures the health of the economy has been on a rebound since this year, especially from the end of the first quarter and that recent initiatives taken by the CBN to solve the problem of chronic scarcity of forex has boosted its performance and that of the capital market.
“The All-Share Index has swung into positive territory after months of persistent declines and trading volumes have increased dramatically in the last couple of months. I would say the Nigerian capital market has done quite well in the last couple of months.”
Kwairanga said in view of the foregoing and the need to encourage the government to leverage on the capital market to finance this year’s budget deficit, it had become imperative to create a platform for cross fertilisation of ideas.
“In pursuit of this noble goal, we have therefore decided to hold a strategic national workshop with the theme: Transiting from recession to global power: A working template for Nigeria, slated for Abuja on July 4. This theme is consistent with our collective belief that what has happened in the last year is an aberration,” he added.
“As you know, participation in our capital market has been slightly skewed in favour of foreign portfolio investors for most of the past decade and this category of investors refused to participate in the Nigerian capital market while the forex issues persisted. I believe the drastic dip in liquidity of the market was partly due to the refusal of this category of investors to play in the market while the macro economic issues were prevalent,” he explained.