•Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Since the completion of the banking consolidation programme, By AMECHI OGBONNA and SEUN ADESIDA

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Friday, washed its hands, as well as those of other regulatory agencies, off the lingering downturn in the fortunes of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), stressing that the trend was typical of all capital markets across the world.

At a special breakfast meeting with chief executives of the 24 banks and key players in the capital market, the CBN governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, said at no time did the apex bank issue any directive to banks to withdraw its support to the operators in the capital market.

The meeting, which was convened to clarify some concern that the current run on quoted equities that has depressed key market indicators may have been caused by regulatory induced panic withdrawal of margin facilities from operators of the capital market who expressed worries that the adverse trend has continued to scare foreign investors from Nigeria.
The governor said the CBN did not and would not determine for banks where to put their money, pointing out that investment decisions at any given time would always be determined by the risk appetite of the banks concerned.

Soludo, who addressed the media alongside the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, and the Director-General of the NSE, Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, pointed out that speculations that the stock exchange was heading for crash were indeed unfounded, since the on-going market volatility was a key feature of all active houses all over the world.

He remarked: “The Nigerian capital market is strong, robust and has an increasing potential for future growth, and all the regulatory agencies would continue to collaborate to take proactive steps to sustain the prosperity we have built in the economy these past years.”

He said there was need to educate the public on the trend in the capital market to avoid the unnecessary speculations that are threatening the stakeholders’ confidence in the Nigerian market.

Although he could not elaborate on some of the strategies the regulators intend to adopt to check the adverse trends in the market in the near future, Professor Soludo hinted that in addition to protecting the integrity of the market, the agencies were also committed to deepening the operation of the market in a way that would make it more attractive to foreign direct investors.

He assured that the regulators would mobilize to further educate the general public on recent events in the market, a role they agreed the media can play a more active role by avoiding sensational reporting of developments in the market.