Nigerian capital market is lagging in fourth industrial revolution participation- NSE CEO

L – R Mr. Femi Akintoye, Deputy Managing Director, Neulogic Solutions, Mr. Gbite Oduneye, Co-Founder, Eagle Global Markets; Mr. Lanre Osibona, Senior Special Assistant to the President on ICT; Mrs. Oluwakemi Akinde, Head, Investment Research, Meristem Group; Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON, Chief Executive Officer, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Ms. Mary Uduk, Acting Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Mr. John Adelana, Head, RegTech, NSE during the NSE Market Data Workshop 2018 at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday.

The Nigerian equity market must brace up to catch up with its counterparts in developed and emerging economies in the fourth industrial revolution participation, Mr. Oscar Onyema, Managing Director, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has said.

Speaking at the NSE Market Data workshop held in Lagos on Friday, he said the country needs to deepen the collaborative effort among market stakeholders to determine which emerging technologies to pursue within our markets and local context, to remain a globally competitive investment destination.

“This year’s theme provides a unique opportunity to assess these three key areas of digitization, disruptive technologies and financial inclusion, to proffer solutions for the challenges facing our capital market. It is our hope that this workshop will catalyse the critical-thinking and collaborations that are required to boost the development of innovative, data-driven solutions; as well as their uptake by the investing populace,” he noted.

Onyema believes artificial Intelligence has the potential to replace and improve the thinking of analysts (by screening large volumes of market data, brokerage reports, company annual reports and results etc.) and framing answers to questions to make good investment decisions.

He added that leveraging on its distributed ledger technology, Blockchain can also help in the distribution of market data to clients in a secured fashion, reduces systematic risks like insider trading through the automation of surveillance events processing and saves costs associated with using intermediaries for verification, trade audits and record keeping.

The NSE boss explained that the exchange is strategically positioned for deep engagement with market stakeholders and economic actors, towards the implementation of game-changing technologies that have the potential to catalyse growth in the Nigerian capital market.

“Since the launch of the NSE’s multi-asset trading platform – Xgen – in 2013, our Market Data product and service offerings have transformed the reach of- and access to the Nigerian Capital Market, and indeed our Economy. We have nine Global Market Data Vendors – including Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters – with global coverage across Europe, Asia and the Americas,” he mentioned.

He claimed the NSE is also forging strategic partnerships with data analytics firms and other actors in the FinTech ecosystem, to develop solutions which will help our investors around the world optimize investment decision-making.