Nigeria Content Online

Some stockbrokers at the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) have called on Aliko Dangote, the embattled NSE
President, and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the director general of the
Exchange, to settle the feud between them so that the market can return
to profitability.

Since the crisis started last week, the
NSE has plunged by over N119 billion. At the close of Tuesday’s
trading, the Exchange’s market capitalisation lost N53 billion, or 0.84
per cent, to close at N6.216 trillion from Monday’s figure of N6.216
trillion. The All-Share Index was down by 0.84 per cent to close at
25,418.84 basis points, from 25,634.39; reflecting a decrease of 215.55
units. The chief executive officer of a stock broking firm at the
Exchange building, who asked not to be named, said stockbrokers are
trying to work out a solution to the current crisis between Mr Dangote
and Mrs Okereke-Onyiuke. “We are talking to those concerned and we
believe we will find a solution at the end of the day. What is
uppermost in our mind presently is the interest of the market,” he
said. “The market needs peace. While we’re trying to cushion the effect
of the global financial crisis, people should not use the market as a
battle field. But like every crisis, it has to be resolved.”

He said the technical issue involved in
the matter is the question of the legal issue and the status of who can
do what. “This issue is a personal thing. What is happening in the
market is the story of two directors of a company having problems with
themselves and because they both have access to information; they are
now using the information in a way that is arousing investors’ fear,”
the broker said. However, he said investors should separate the market
from the Exchange’ accounting problem. “The trading platform which the
NSE provided for stockbrokers is still operational. We can still trade.”

Insolvency claim

On the insolvency
claim by Mr Dangote against the NSE, the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), the regulator of the NSE, is yet to make public the
Exchange true financial state, though the NSE has refuted the claim.
Calls placed to the mobile phone of Lanre Oloyi, SEC’s Media Head, went
unanswered, and a text message sent to him was not replied. Meanwhile,
another stockbroker, who also spoke under anonymity and offered further
insight, said that Mr Dangote actually gave the true financial state of
the market. “We all expect the NSE management to come out clean since
the current global financial crisis affected many companies,” he said.

He added that in terms of the personality of the warring parties, “I
don’t think any broker has grudge against them,” he said. “What we are
not happy about is what is happening between the two of them and the
effect of it on the market. In the final analysis it is the brokers and
investors that will suffer the consequences of the dispute.” Bola Oke,
an executive member of the Shareholders Association of Nigeria, said
investors would love Mr Dangote and Mrs Okereke-Onyiuke to find
solution to whatever the problem is between them. “This worrying
development should not come at this time that the market has done so
much to put pressure on the government to come up with the Asset
Management Corporation which we believe will uplift the market on the
long run,” Ms Oke said.