Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, has commended the Nigerian Exchange Limited for her efforts towards deepening the Nigerian capital market.
The Minister gave the commendation, Tuesday, when the Management of the Exchange, led by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Timi Popoola, paid her a courtesy call in her office.
While acknowledging the commitment of the Management, culminating in the demutualization of the exchange, Mrs Ahmed called on the Management to leverage on technology and innovations which could ease the processes of trading on the exchange and ensure that ordinary citizens could participate in the capital market.
In furtherance of this objective, the Honourable Minister stated, that the Federal Government had directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to marshal out a saving policy and programme that would encourage citizens of all economic standing to actively participate in Nigerian capital market as a means of unlocking the potentials in the market.
In the same vein, the Permanent Secretary, Aliyu Ahmed, while congratulating Mr Popoola on his appointment urged him and his team to tap into their experiences and scale up the operations of the exchange for the benefit of investors and the market.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the Exchange, Timi Popoola had informed the Honourable Minister that he had come to introduce the Exchange’s new Management of the Exchange to the Honourable Minister and to also appreciate the Honourable Minister’s support to the Nigerian capital market.
While assuring the Honourable Minister of the Exchange’s support to this administration’s effort in making Nigeria a destination for foreign investment as well as attracting investors, Mr Popoola sought for a reduction on Company Income Tax (CIT), from 25 to 20%, among others, arguing that these would ultimately attract more taxes to government.
The CEO assured the Minister of the Exchange’s commitment to support the Ministry’s fiscal policy and willingness to serve on the committee of the Finance Bill 2021.
On the request for a reduction of various taxes relating to the capital market, the Honourable Minster declared that such requests would be treated on their individual merits stating that the requests had come at appropriate time when the Ministry was working on the Finance Bill 2021.