NSE returns recovered capital market fraud funds to investors

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) disclosed that it recovered the sum of 70 million from capital market fraud in 2018. The money has been returned to investors in the market.

The NSE partnered with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) to track the money. The Nigerian bourse had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the EFCC to tackle market infractions and abuse. This pact was signed on October 4, 2013.

Ogunbanjo, the Chairman of the Nigerian Bourse, who made this revelation during the NSE Annual General Meeting said the move was part of efforts to bring sanity to the capital market while eschewing the spate of economic and financial crimes.

Ogunbajo promised that the NSE would continue to strike deals and partnerships in order to achieve its goal of maintaining a fair market.

The Partnership: Detailing the extent of the NSE’s parley with EFCC, Ogunbajo said the Nigerian Bourse has a direct line of communication with the law enforcement agency which enables information sharing, reporting and investigation of incidents that accelerate the recovery of stolen securities in no time.

The NSE Chairman also noted that the protection of investors was their major priority. To check activities on the Exchange, an Investors Protectors Fund (IPF) was set up to compensate claimants for pecuniary losses suffered by them as a result of wrongdoing by certain dealing member firms of the Exchange. This initiative was lauded by Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, a trustee of the IPF.

Optimism in the light of poor performance: Last year was not so good for the Exchange as it recorded an 8% revenue decline to 7.8 billion due to poor performances of the equities market.

Ogunbajo is optimistic nonetheless as he hoped the market would bounce back following the swift approval and implementation of the 2019 budget.

“However, we boosted our total assets to N29.07bn, up from N26.69bn in 2017. This provided us with adequate financial flexibility to support our strategy execution for the road ahead.

“We intend to capitalise on milestones achieved thus far, while continuing to execute on our 2018-2021 strategy, which is focused on consumer centricity, market development and innovation,” he said.

Global Spectrum Energy Services Plc, GTBank Plc, Transnational Corp of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank and FCMB Plc led the most actively traded stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in yesterday’s trading session.

While Global Spectrum Energy Services Plc led the chart with 36.6 million shares valued at N172 million traded in 3 deals, GTBank followed with 14.4 million shares valued at N387.2 million in 156 deals and Transnational Corp of Nigeria traded 9.8 million shares valued at N9.9 million in 76 deals.