‘Capital market can bridge infrastructure gap in West Africa’ — Shettima asks operators to find liquidity

Vice-President Kashim Shettima says the capital market can help bridge the infrastructure gap in the West African sub-region.

Shettima spoke at the opening ceremony of the 3rd West Africa Capital Market Conference (WACMaC) held in Lagos on Wednesday.

The conference was themed, ‘Infrastructural Deficit and Sustainable Financing in an Integrated West African Capital Market’.

Shettima said the capital market in Nigeria and across the region has a crucial role to play in addressing the infrastructure deficit on the continent.

Shettima was represented by Tope Fasua, special adviser to the president on economic affairs in the office of the vice-president. 

He said the capital market can also provide a platform for companies to raise capital to invest in infrastructure projects and also help to attract foreign investment.

The vice-president urged regulators and operators in the capital market to be innovative and to develop new products and services that can meet the needs of investors and issuers.

“Innovations have turned out more than ever to be both a potent advantage and disadvantage depending on one’s readiness to engage,” Shettima said. 

“Indeed it is said that the best way to prepare for the future is to create it. Where are we on this? Whereas capital market development in any nation is not an easy task, much less its maintenance and sustainability.

“We must commend the efforts of entities, governments, corporations, and individuals across West Africa who have over time come together to put in the shift that got us here.”

‘DISCOVER RESILIENCE AND ESTABLISH SUSTAINABILITY’

He urged West African regulators and operators to think hard to find liquidity, growth, and sustainability in their markets, saying “if stock exchanges in developed countries still thrive there is no reason why West African exchanges should not thrive”.

“There must be reasons why these entities are still thriving and those reasons are the fundamental underpinnings that must be explored to gain purpose, to find strength, to discover resilience, and establish sustainability,” he added. 

“My role is to encourage your work and to through these words imbue you with some additional impetus, purpose, clarity, and strength as it is not over until it is over.

“And it should never be over for the capital market in West Africa and I am glad to see the co-operation that has been going on among you.” 

In his opening remarks, Lamido Yuguda, director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said the conference was conceived as a platform to address crucial issues related to the orderly growth and development of regional and continental capital markets.

He said the event was jointly hosted by the West Africa Securities Regulators Association (WASRA), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West Africa Capital Market Integration Council (WACMIC), and the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI).

Yuguda, who is also the chairman of WASRA, expressed confidence that the event would foster integration, encourage capital formation, promote tourism, and attract investors.