The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki has assured the Management of the Nigeria Stock Exchange that the Bureau will continue to support and recommend to the Federal Government the listing on the exchange, enterprises that are going through the process of reforms and privatization to deepen and improve the liquidity in the capital market.
He made this known at the bell ringing ceremony in his honor at the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos.
He noted that the relationship between the Bureau, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Nigerian capital market in general is a long standing one, recollecting that: “During the first phase of the privatization program from 1989-1992, 55 of 111enterprises scheduled for privatization were privatized via public floatation”.
He noted that with the benefit of the experience of the first phase, government adopted the core investor sales strategy in the subsequent phases, adding that: “As it turned out, some of the core investors that emerged were not quite prepared and equipped to run the outfits they then controlled.
Dikki pointed out that the core investor strategy also envisaged that the balance of the shares not sold to the core investors would eventually be sold to the Nigerian public through initial public offering (IPO).
He praised the progress made by the management of the Exchange in growing it to be among the top Stock Exchanges in the world.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema pledged the readiness of NSE to continue to partner with the Bureau in its reform and privatization mandate. He commended the appointment of Dikki, who is a stockbroker, as the Director General of the BPE, adding that it was a case of putting a square peg in a square hole.
He noted that the touted transformation of NSE to one of the major exchanges in the world was built on five major pillars; which included strong regulatory regime, use of technology, targeted business development, advocacy and growth enabling market structure.
CHIGBO ANICHEBE
Head, Public Communications
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