Stock Market: Shareholders, Reps bemoan loss in investment values

The House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions and other stakeholders, weekend, bemoaned the huge loss of billions of naira in investment values in the nation’s stock market.
They blamed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the regulatory authorities for the persistent downward slide of share prices in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE.
This was revealed at a public hearing conducted by the committee.
House Committee Chairman on Capital Markets and Institutions, Tajudeen Yusuf, PDP, Kogi, in his opening remarks at the two-day hearing, stated that the House was concerned about the rapid slide of investments in the Nigerian capital market.
According to Yusuf, the public hearing will give all the stakeholders — legislature, regulatory authorities, stockbrokers — the opportunity to cross fertilize ideas that will help re-position the capital market.
He also said one of the planks in the legislative agenda of the 8th House of Representatives was to consistently seek, support and evolve meaningful and realistic initiatives and measures through which the nation’s economy could experience growth and development.
Earlier, while declaring the investigative hearing open, Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, noted that the persistent downward trend in the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the issue of unclaimed dividends by investors were two issues posing serious national challenges.
Some stakeholders, including Dr. David Ogogo, Amb Olufemi Timothy and Mr Emeka Mmadubike, Presidents of Institute of Capital Market Registrars, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria and Association of Registered Stockbrokers respectively, in their presentations, blamed the apex bank for the downward trend in the Nigerian stock market.
While blaming the Federal Government for not injecting some funds to bail out the stock market, they also identified poor regulation, including the injection of slush funds by commercial banks, and CBN policy somersault, as the reason for the collapse of the nation’s capital market. Vanguard