The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said it has put modalities in place at ensuring that the recent rolled-out Federal Government’s 10-point road map at reviving the economy becomes a success.

The Government’s Fiscal Roadmap is aimed at addressing barriers to growth that will drive productivity, generate jobs and broaden wealth creating opportunities to achieve inclusive growth.
Addressing the capital market community on Thursday during the NSE’s 2016 market recap and 2017 outlook, the Chief Executive Officer Mr. Oscar Onyema said the new government’s road map will definitely assist the government in navigating the economy out of the woods it has found itself.

 

He said as a stakeholder in the domestic economy, the NSE has put modalities in place by way of making the necessary expertise available to the government to make success of the roadmap in both the short and the long term period.

 

Similarly, Onyema said the Exchange supports the unbundling of the nation’s refinery as this will mitigate draw down on government’s spending, even as this fund could be applied appropriately on other projects.

 

Onyema reasoned that the unbundling of the refineries will bring about the listing of the companies on the floor of the stock market, thereby causing the equity market to have robust bottom-line.

 

On the market outlook for the year, the NSE CEO said the Capital Market is expected to recover from its recession in 2017 with a modest GDP growth forecast of 0.6 per cent, driven by vigor of fiscal policy implementation, with a keen focus on articulation of desired goals.

 

Onyema noted that notwithstanding the positive outlook in the year owning to current indicators, explained that the Nigerian capital market will have to do a better job at promoting its unique value proposition to both global and domestic investors.

 

“Monetary policy will continue to play a vital role in determining activity in the market. With forecasts for inflation expected to moderate due to the base effect, we believe that all things equal, monetary authorities will have more flexibility with respect to interest rates and FX regime. Hence good coordination between fiscal and monetary policy should result in resolution of aforementioned structural deficiencies and drive economic growth. We expect investors to continue to keep a close eye on the divergence between the interbank FX rate and other exchange rates in the country. Accordingly, a convergence of FX rates in the country and the performance of listed corporates will determine the level of market activity in the short term. 6.3. NSE Strategic Outlook Cognizant of the ever evolving economic realities on ground, the NSE will take an adaptive approach to strategy execution in 2017. In the immediate future, the NSE will focus on achieving its goal of becoming a more agile and demutualized exchange and will fast track efforts towards developing innovative products such as exchange traded derivatives to provide investors with tools to better weather economic realities in 2017. We intend to strengthen our thought leadership efforts with policymakers to drive policies that will free up the system and promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria”, he added