Nwani stated this at the Capital Market Correspondents
Association of Nigeria 2023 workshop with the theme: ‘Leveraging Capital Market
in Financing the National Development Plan,’ held in Lagos.
He said, “On sustainability finance, about $ 30 trillion is
out there looking for who to take it as far as sustainability is concerned.
“How is the Nigerian capital market positioning itself to be
a strong recipient of this free fund? From the level of the exchanges: NGX and
FMDQ, we are ready to list and are already listing. Apart from the Federal
Government, corporations and state governments are beginning to show interest
in green bonds. Even the pink bond for women-owned/ managed businesses, we are
seeing a lot of interest.
During the panel discussion, which included other
stakeholders, Nwani revealed that the
Lagos State government had gone far in terms of offering a green bond,
noting that announcements should be made soon.
“Lagos State has even gone very far and an announcement will
be made on their coming to the market as far as the green bond is concerned.
Rest assured things are being done around tapping the $30tn sustainability
finance.
“The work there now is about training, enlightenment, and
awareness for investors and issuers. Work is already being done on that.
“Over the last year, FMDQ has worked with FSD Africa to
organise four or five different training sessions for investors, even the
government, like key ministries and their functionaries in Abuja. Work is going
on but like I said, we need to do more in this space,” he said.
On the theme of the workshop, Nwani argued that the Nigerian
capital market might be unable to finance the National Development Plan,
saying, “If the capital market is going to power the National Development Plan,
it is obvious that we have to increase scale. Is our capital market in a place
where it can power this plan?
“A lot of work needs to be done. We are not there yet. The
capital market is not positioned to power this plan yet. We need to make this
market to be globally competitive. Is it currently globally competitive? The
answer is no.
“Access to this market is restricted, the challenge with
foreign exchange clearly shows that access is restricted. Is it liquid? Is it
operationally efficient? In terms of cost, our market is one of the costliest
in the world. Speaking of diversity, is it diversified in terms of products, in
terms of securities?” Nwani asked.
He added that the government and stakeholders needed to pay
more attention to housing and bridging the housing deficit.
“In financing this National Development Plan, for
infrastructure, we have emphasised but we also need to look at housing. About
17 million housing units are needed.
“Being able to solve that puzzle of delivering housing to
the poorest of the poor, through mass housing. Any day we solve that, we will
be closing the gap in the National Development Plan,” he stated.
Challenging players in the capital market, Nwani urged them
to move away from bite-sized investments and make bold moves.
“We need to be bold in this market. This sachet-sized
investment initiatives need to move to something big for us to be able to
finance the National Development Plan,” he said.
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