The Chief Executive Officer of World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), Mr Nandini Sukumar and his NASDAQ Exchange’s counterpart, Adena Friedman have confirmed their participation as speakers at the 2020 Stockbrokers’ Conference to review the role of Nigerian financial market towards economic development.
Also on the list of the key speakers to dissect the funding gaps in Nigeria’s budget and the capital market option is Robin Tucker, Head Solution Delivery Core Assets, Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The hybrid Conference, scheduled for Wednesday, November 4 and Thursday, November 5, 2020, has the Theme: “Navigating through the Storms-Reenergizing the Economy through the Capital Market” with numerous sub-themes on contemporary issues in the financial market.
The president of the Chartered Institute of stock brokers (CIS), Olatunde Amolegbe, said: “The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated Nigeria’s fragile economy. The sharp drop in government revenue has made it more difficult for the government to weather the crisis.”
Amolegbe said the situation has resulted in a decline in consumption, aggregate demand, investment, net export and increasing government spending forcing the Federal Government to review the budget downwards to N10.8 trillion.
“We believe even with the 29% allocation to capital expenditure -about N3.4trn, is not sufficient to bridge the gap given the neglect in the past compared to about $14 billion annual requirement so the capital market via the private sector can provide this support.