By Providence Obuh

The only thing that can encourage entrepreneurs to come and list their companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is to give incentives and tax holiday, said Shareholders. Stockbrokers have identified entrepreneurs participation in the capital market as a key to boosting activities and repositioning the market for global competitiveness. As the stockbrokers clamoured, they also maintained that the capital market cannot do without the participation of the entrepreneurs who have the capacity to bring their companies for listing on the stock exchanges.

Mr. Boniface Okezie, National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN):
Entrepreneurs coming to the market are a plus and a boost to the market, but they need to be encouraged and given incentive. It is that incentive that will attract them to the market, some waivers have to be given and listing charges have to be considered. These are people aspiring and it is not an easy task to run a company.

Incentives would motivate them to bring their stock to be listed on the floor of the stock exchange and that is the only way to boost market activities. The first thing is to get them to participate and on the long run you can charge what ever you want to charge. On the part of government, they have to relinquish tax and give tax holiday, these are things that motivate people to want to list and thereby create job opportunity for Nigerians. Govern-ment alone cannot create jobs the private sector has to be encouraged by giving them tax holidays, that is how it is done all over the world to encourage entrepreneurs to access at least the equities for the benefit of the investing public and that would also create job opportunities for young graduates who are looking for employment and roaming the streets.

The entrepreneurs we are talking about are not those who are not matured, all entrepreneurs cannot come to the market to list but the government can encourage them by giving them soft loans to start from somewhere. If you do not have a capital base, there is no way you can get fund to start with. Young people who have gone to school after parental care and struggle have to do something, so government needs to set up a pool of fund for them to have access without collaterals. With that you can encourage them to become entrepreneurs and be on their own. When you say you have an infrastructural bank, that is where it starts from, when their business begins to flourish, then they can start thinking of removing those incentives from them.

Mr. Olusegun Owolabi, President, Western ICON Shareholders Association of Nigeria:

The Nigerian entre-preneurs coming to take their positions in the capital market are going to help boost the standard of the capital market, more so that the Foreign Direct Investment is so maximised that it has even drown the local investment. So the indigenous entrepreneurs coming to the market are going to help the change mantra of the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari.

One of the things that the change mantra wants to achieve is to involve and integrate Nigeria entrepreneurs into the capital market. Let me assure you that the Nigerian capital market without the entrepreneurs cannot go too far and that is one of the problems we have been encountering in the capital market. The coming of entrepreneurs or encouraging them to the market would be highly beneficial.