The capital market, as an institution, is capable of creating wealth and generate employment for the country if new laws are fashioned to guide its operations, Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has said.
He said this in Abuja in a message read on his behalf by his Special Assistant on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, at a two-day Stakeholders’ Forum on ‘’Realising the full potentials of the Nigerian Economy through proactive Capital Market legislation.” The forum was organised by the Senate and House of Representatives joint committee on the Capital Market and Institutions.
Consequently, he tasked stakeholders in the capital market to come up with new laws and initiatives that will preposition the capital market to enable it play its role of massive infrastructural development.
He underscored the importance of market in providing long term finances, which he said cannot be over-emphasised, especially at this critical time the nation’s economy is witnessing shortage of longterm financing of infrastructures. President, National Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and Co- Chairman of the Occasion, Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, said the forum will give deeper understanding of the capital market.
‘‘The first thing I would like to say here is that there is only one panacea to our current problem and that is economic growth. Economic growth will address issues of unemployment, lack of inclusion, poverty and health. It will enable us run a budget that can build infrastructure and address the immediate needs of millions of Nigerians’’ He noted that the Exchange has continued to play its role in facilitating inclusive economic growth by embracing financial literacy programme.
‘’I think the power of technology for us is very key, I have my phone here in my pocket and I think everybody here does, and I think a day will come when hundreds of millions of Nigerians will use their phones to buy stocks and are able to move from one stock to the other by just tapping their handsets. One of the things we should also talk about is that quoted companies pay more taxes than companies that are not quoted.”