Nigeria’s NASD over-the-counter bonds transactions hit N12.1bn in 2017

Nigeria’s NASD over-the-counter (OTC) securities exchange-traded bonds transactions expanded to N12.08 billion in the 2017, according to Olutola Mobolurin, the company’s chairman.

Mobolurin, who disclosed this at the company’s annual general meeting Tuesday, said the NASD admitted five new securities to close the year with 34 securities representing a 3.13 percent increase in the number of admitted securities as volume of shares traded during the year increased by 20 percent.

The exchange also recorded a 6.42 percent increase in level of authorised traders and a 5.83 percent in participating institutions.

Reviewing the OTC exchange’s performance, Mobolurin, however, noted that the N4.36 billion value of transactions executed on the market in the 2017 financial year declined marginally by 0.08 percent compared to the previous year. Trading activity also reduced in 2017 as the number of trades executed on the NASD OTC market decreased by 42.68 percent over the previous year.

According to Mobolurin the company’s direct trading expense in the year under review reduced to N63 million from N82.4 million in the preceding year as a result of the renegotiation of the lease payment to the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the use of its trading platform and the conscious effort to reduce cost generally.

“The lease payment to the NSE for the use of its trading platform is the highest singular expenditure item for the company,” he said.

He, however, noted that the board had considered the use of an alternative trading platform, which could align costs with the current slow pace of the development of the market.

He said, “It is anticipated that the reawakening of economic activities which is expected to be sustained in 2018 will buoy market activities as this will increase the performance of many businesses in the OTC market space and re-ignite investor interest.”

Towards this, Mobolurin said the company secured the approval of SEC, last year to create and manage the NASD enterprise portal in line with its commitment to developing investments complementary to the advancement and development of the market to serve the peculiar needs of the Nigerian economy.

He said the portal, which was launched in April 2018, would function as a repository for collating information on the performance, operations and investment opportunities available in qualified enterprises.

According to Mobolurin, the NASD also embarked on the reconfiguration of its proprietary bilateral interdealer trading system (BITS) platform, adding that “it is expected that the transition from the present leased platform to the BITS will greatly reduce trading cost, which was the highest annual expense incurred by the company since 2013.”