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Onitsha Stock Exchange
By Chigozie Chukwuleta, Awka, Anambra State
Friday, April
25, 2008
ANAMBRA State before now was noted for the vast presence
of traders and few manufacturers especially with the presence
of Onitsha Main Market.
But the present administration in the state led by Governor
Peter Obi came in with an old brand of business but novel
to the people of the state who are used to buying and selling
of items.
Seeing that talks alone cannot do the desired job, the state
government embarked on the establishment of a business park
with a Stock Exchange Market on the February 15, 2008. Governor
Obi stood taller than his colleagues east of the Nigeria’s
the state hosted a one-way traffic that led to the site of
the Onitsha Stock Exchange which was being commissioned as
Nigeria first online/ real time trading system in securities.
It was easily adjudged the biggest effort by any government
in South East in the area of economic empowerment.
The Stock Exchange building in Onitsha is located at the Business
Village at Ridge Road GRA Onitsha and according to Governor
Obi the construction of the project was driven by his administration’s
desire to economically redirect the state and re-prioritize
investment and change the value orientation of the people
who being good traders, he believed could also be introduced
into trading on stocks and shares.
Surprisingly, a branch office of the Nigerian Stock Exchange
had been in existence in Onitsha since 1990 and was known
only to a few people largely because of the manual trading
system known as the call over system employed there, and the
fact that Onitsha residents and citizens are married to their
local baying and selling business not galvanized and sensitized
on the gains of investing in the capital market and as such
many industries in the state drank from the same pool of ignoranc.
Barely six weeks after the commissioning of the Onitsha Stock
Exchange, the governor's seeds are beginning to germinate
especially in the area of acceptance of the new horizon in
business ventures. General Manager General, Cotton Mill Onitsha,
A.N. Okafor described Governor Peter Obi, who conceptualized
his idea within the first two years of his regime as a great
and astute leader who has seen the light and in his Paternalism
wants his people to partake in to this goidmne of business
undertakings.
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