By Chukwuma Umeorah
FBN Holdings Plc and Total Energies Marketing Nigeria Plc led the nominations for the forthcoming 2022 PEARL Awards with three mentions each across different categories.
This year’s edition of the Pearl Awards themed “Sustaining Excellence through Tenacity” would consist of three major categories namely; Main Competitive Awards category, Honorary Awards category and Special Recognition category.
Leading the nomination roll in their respective sectors, FBN Holdings PLC and Total Energies Marketing Nigeria PLC emerged the top two nominees for having the most nominations for the Pearl Awards set to hold November 27 in Lagos.
FBN Holdings Plc was nominated for the Sectoral Leadership Award in the Financial Services (Other Financial Institutions), where it is in contention with Access Holdings Plc and United Capital Plc. It also got a nomination in the Market Excellence Awards for Highest Dividend Cover in the year under consideration. Others sharing this nomination are Guinness Nig. Plc and Transnational Corporation Plc. The third nomination of FBN Holdings is in the Corporate Governance Award along with Total Energies and Marketing Nigeria Plc and United Capital Plc.
Likewise, Total Energies Marketing Nigeria Plc aside from the Corporate Governance nomination, they were also selected for the Sectoral Awards for the Oil and Gas sector sharing the nomination with Seplat Energies Plc and Conoil Plc. It also got a nomination for the Highest Net Asset Ratio Award, which its share with SFS Real Estate Investment Trust Plc and Seplat Energy Plc.
Other top nominees for the 2022 Pearl Awards include Nestle Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, United Capital Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigeria Breweries Plc, Learn Africa Plc, CWG Plc, Nigeria Aviation Handling Co. Plc, Courteville Business Solutions Plc among others which were selected based on their outstanding performances using carefully laid down indices.
President of Pearl Awards Nigeria, Tayo Orekoya, noted that the performance of the capital market in the first three quarters of 2022 had been impressive despite the volatility across global markets occasioned by the Pandemic, Russia-Ukraine crises among other challenging macro-economic environment, hence the need to recognize and award stakeholders with exceptional performances.
He added that the plans are being made to accommodate even more market players in subsequent editions of the Awards. “As we move into year 2023, plans are afoot to comprehensively restructure the Awards to cover other market players and allied organizations including Registrars, Fund Managers, Portfolio Advisers and Fintech Companies. Details of other far-reaching structural changes to be implemented would be announced in due course, as part of efforts to sustain the impact, relevance and credibility of the Awards in our contribution to the vibrancy, growth and development of the Nigerian capital market.”