The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has said that the use of remote trading by dealing member firms has continued to grow in acceptance as there are 235 remote trading connections in Lagos besides those deployed in branches across the country.

Remote trading which is one of the attached benefits of Automated Trading System (ATS) was introduced to the market in 2005. The system enables Stockbrokers to trade from their offices without having to come to The Exchange in person.

The Deputy General Manager/Acting Head Market Operations and IT Directorate, Mr. Ogbonnaya Osita explained that stockbroking firms are connected based on request and that presently the number of Dealing Member Firms that are using the system is growing rapidly.

He spoke further that most of those stockbrokers who are still coming physically to the Exchange to trade are doing so because most of them want to keep relationships with their colleagues as most of them have capacity to do remote trading from their offices. He said that the situation is the same even advanced markets.

Some dealing members of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have described the introduction of remote trading to the operations of market as one of the commendable innovations of the Exchange.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Mr. Akeem Oyewole has said that the remote trading has helped the growth of the market greatly and has improved the performance of his company.

“We have ten stockbrokers in our company and it is only one of them who goes to The Exchange’s trading floor to trade physically. The remaining nine trade remotely from our office. It is working fine, it has been a blessing to our operations”, he said.

According to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Mallam Kasimu Kurfi, his company was the first to start remote trading on the Exchange. “We have been using since inception and have never encountered any serious problem”.

The Chief Executive Officer of Partnership Investment Co. Limited, Mr. Victor Ogiemwonyi said there is remote trading in the market, but that there may be challenges in some places, but that the challenges may be beyond the control of the Exchange. “Sometimes the link is bad and that is the problem of Internet Service Providers”, he said.

Ogbonnaya spoke on the observation of Ogiemwonyi and said that there are two service providers engaged by the Exchange for the purpose and these are 21 century and MTN, stressing that the network coverage of the service providers is not everywhere and this reality has been a drawback to the operations of remote trading.