Expert faults stock exchange on new trading platform

A financial expert, Mr. Okechukwu Unegbu, has faulted the online trading platform, `Smart Trade’, recently launched by the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Unegbu, a former President of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday.

He said that the NSE should have embarked on sensitisation of investors before launching the application.

According to him, the concept is good, but a tall order for Nigerian environment due to its peculiarity.

Unegbu said that NSE should have embarked on nationwide sensitisation to enlighten investors before launching the online trading platform.

“We are not in the U.S. and even, it is not everybody that can use online application to transact business,” he said.

The expert urged the NSE to concentrate on manual trading, rather than the new platform, stressing that erratic power supply was still a major problem in Nigeria.

He said that the exchange should also strengthen its investor education strategy to win more investors back to the market.

According to him, the market is still battling from the loss of confidence due to the 2008 global financial meltdown.

Unegbu advised market regulators to pursue policies that would enhance investor confidence in the market instead of concentrating on regulatory policies in the name of capitalisation and minimum operating standard.

NAN reports that NSE, had on November 18, launched the online trading platform aimed at increasing the number of retail investors to 25 million from its current five million.

The platform was launched in conjunction with four stockbroking firms of Investment One, CSL, GTI and Meristem Securities.

The platform is to provide users with real-time market information to analyse the market trend.PUNCH NG