BY PETER EGWUATU

In order to achieve its one trillion dollar market capitalisation target, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has assured that it will give all necessary supports to the operations of GTI Securities trading floor as part of efforts to deepen the capital market as a catalyst for national development.

Nigerian Stock Exchange

Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, who gave this assurance during a visit to the trading floor at Central Business District, Marina, Lagos, described the initiative by GTI Securities as an exciting and trailblazing innovation that will complement ongoing efforts to deepen the Nigerian capital market into a $1 trillion capitalisation market.

According to him, the NSE will provide supports to GTI because the private trading floor will help to drive NSE’s stated goal of getting to $1 trillion in market capitalisation across five products.

Situated on Tinubu Street in the Marina axis of Lagos’s main Central Business District, the trading floor built by GTI Securities Limited, a member of the GTI Capital Group is a 150-seat multi-purpose trading floor.

At full installed capacity, some 150 brokers and dealers can trade on all securities listed on any of the securities exchanges including Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and NASD Plc.

“GTI has really impressed me, you are blazing the trail in innovation in the Nigerian capital market. We at the NSE are very supportive of your efforts and applaud you on taking the initiative to invest in this area. We believe that the sky is the limit,” Onyema said.

The NSE CEO noted that the market is a whole ecosystem that requires the innovativeness and effectiveness of the regulators but of all other stakeholders reassuring that the NSE will continue to work closely with all stakeholders in the collective effort to grow the market.

He pointed out that the Nigerian economy and capital market have the depth to accommodate innovations and expansionary drives such as GTI’s, urging market operators to be creative and innovative.

“We are very excited about what GTI is doing, congratulations,” Onyema told the management of GTI after listening to presentation and inspecting the state-of-the-art trading floor.

Group managing director, GTI Capital Group, Mr. Abubakar Lawal, commended the NSE for providing the enabling environment for innovation and global competitiveness to thrive.

According to him, GTI is positioned as one of the leading investment banking firm in Nigeria with its trading floor being the first in Nigeria and in the Sub-Saharan Africa.