Reps move to broaden capital market coverage

The House of Representatives has passed a bill for a second reading to broaden the coverage of Nigeria’s capital market through wider participation of entities that were hitherto excluded.

It passed the second reading at the plenary on Wednesday.

The bill sponsored by Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia) seeks to establish the Chartered Institute of Cooperatives and Social Enterprise Management.

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Presenting his lead debate, Kalu said, it also seeks to empower cooperatives and social enterprises by broadening the coverage base of Nigeria’s capital market.

According to him, it will achieve the objective through joint investments, in an all-inclusive participation that whittles down systemic shocks that are common with less diversified structures within the stock market.

Kalu said it will empower cooperatives and social enterprises through access to and use of financial market instruments for long-term investments, especially in the dilution of costs of capital for cheaper financial costs of operations.