By Nkiruka Nnorom

FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange Plc has admitted Vetiva S&P Nigerian Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund for listing on its platform, making it the first ETF to be listed on the Exchange.

The listing of the Fund on its platform, according to FMDQ, validates the OTC Exchange’s goal of bringing the Nigerian fixed income market operations under a single governance structure. The Exchange noted that the listing further creates the opportunity for issuers and investors to tap into and utilise the mass benefits availed by the OTC Exchange in the Nigerian debt capital market.

In her address at the listing ceremony, Ms. Tumi Sekoni, Vice President & Divisional Head, Marketing & Business Development, FMDQ, congratulated the Fund Manager for recognizing the efficiency and reliability of the FMDQ platform and its subsequent decision to list the its ETF on same.

According to her, the FMDQ Listings and Quotations service has been tailored to provide Fund Managers and other issuers, an avenue to improve the credibility of their issues and in turn benefit from the information transparency which such a listing on FMDQ guarantees.

Remarking, Mr. Damilola Ajayi, Managing Director, Vetiva Fund Managers Ltd, said: “The Vetiva S&P Nigerian Sovereign Bond ETF, provides access to a basket of Federal Government long-dated securities and creates a mechanism for retail investors to trade these securities freely”.

He further stated that the ability to save and invest is crucial to individual and collective prosperity and, as a nation, any effort geared toward developing a platform to enhance this culture is an effort in the right direction.

The Vetiva S&P ETF was developed to track the S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Index. The Index was launched in December 2013 and tracks the performance of local currency denominated sovereign long-dated debt publicly issued by the federal government. The Index level is available through S&P Dow Jones Indices’ website with a ticker symbol of SPFINGU.

Sekoni added that the listing on FMDQ, would avail the ETF benefits, which include but are not limited to, global visibility through the dedicated ‘Funds’ page on FMDQ’s corporate website and transparency to the ETF through its inclusion in the FMDQ Daily Quotations List.

Continuing, she said: “FMDQ shall continue to lend itself a worthy platform, spearheading initiatives targeted at improving liquidity of Funds listed on its platform, thereby supporting the aspirations of Fund Managers and making the markets within its purview globally competitive; with a view to positioning the Nigerian financial markets towards achieving its full potential of driving growth and development in the nation”.