OBJ insisted that I chair Transcorp - Onyiuke
Abuja - The Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, has insisted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, compelled her to stay on as the chairperson of the Board of Transcorp, to ensure the successful implementation of the once troubled organisation.
Professor Onyiuke made this known to a select House of Representative committee on Capital Market, looking into the activities of NSE. The NSE DG insisted during the meeting that OBJ directed that she should not hand-off the position even after she had prepared her hand-over notes. This was in direct response to a question posed by one of the committee members about conflict of interest in her position as NSE Director-General.
“When I presented the report, I said excuse me sir, everybody here is a businessman. I think I’m in the wrong meeting because I am not a business person. I earn a salary from the Stock Exchange but I stayed out of respect but he said ‘no.
You are not in the wrong meeting. I specially asked for you to come because I noticed that the way you are controlling these men that their companies are quoted in the Stock Exchange in a harmonious manner, they respect you.
The same way you will be able to chair the committee that would be responsible for this company. So, you will be the chairman of this company,’” she said.
Professor Onyiuke however gave some ray of hope to the current problem faced by investors in securing their share certificates which several banks and clearing houses are being accused of holding to control the public trading of shares by speculators, a move that could drastically devalue most shares currently in the market. The D.G confirmed that the introduction of e-IPO or Electronic Initial Public Offering, will ensure certificate issuance delay is permanently tackled.
“With the current de-materialisation, nobody needs to ask for certificate. The very day the issue closes, the Board meets and allot. Once allotment is done within two weeks, within two days, you are a bona fide shareholder. So, there will be no need to say pay interest or don’t pay interest. The banks will not keep the money,” she said.
Professor Onyiuke also announced the Council of Nigerian Stock Exchange has since taken a decision to “de-mutualise” the NSE so that all interested investors could buy shares in the exchange, a process expected to take three years to complete.
Share certificate delays are usually caused by artificial manipulation by banks and clearing houses. When share certificates are released, short-term investors referred to in the capital market parlance as “speculators” usually take advantage of the share price differential (difference between the price the stock was bought during the public offer, which is always at a discount and the current price of the stock, which could have almost doubled) to off-load their shares and make quick money. This often lead to a decline in the share price as there would be more supply than demand in the market.
To forestall this from happening, some banks in alliance with registrars, intentionally delay the release of the share certificates.
Another reason the banks delay their share certificates is top ensure that they are they have a head-start in the market before investors based on market information. This is known in finance parlance as “insider trading”. Positive information would automatically push up the share price of a company, while negative information can send the share price crashing.
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