Shareholders say the nonchalant attitude of capital market
regulators toward investors is a major cause of their dismal confidence in the
market. The shareholders stated this in Lagos.

They claimed that the Federal Government, the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had not done
enough to encourage domestic portfolio investment since the market nearly
collapsed in 2008.

They also and  that
most of them were aggrieved that the regulators abandoned them, in spite of
boosting the nation’s economy through domestic investments in the capital
market and government bonds.

Mr Boniface Okezie, the President of the Progressive
Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), urged the NSE, SEC and the Ministry
of Finance to woo the investors back to the
market since it had survived “ beyond the holocaust days’’.

He said that the current reforms being undertaken by the
regulators could not restore lost confidence in the nation’s capital market,
but a coordinated enlightenment and people-friendly economic policies.

“The market we are seeing today on a rally point happened on
its own and not because of a specific reform by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) or the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE),’’ he said.

Okezie said that it was necessary for Nigerians to find out
whether the government’s appointees had made any effort to embrace and woo the investors
who left back.

“ They need to talk to these investors and explain to them
the reason why the market is functioning the way it is,” he added.

According to him, there is also the need for the regulators
to address the issues that led to the loss.

The PSAN president said that asking multinationals to enlist
on the market was not the way to go as it was still on a downward trend with no
guarantee of a steady appreciation.

“They can only list when there is a guaranteed atmosphere
that their share price would not dip dismally. Those who are already listed,
how is the economy protecting their investments?” he queried.

Another shareholder, Mr Bayo Adeleke, agreed with Okezie,
saying that the NSE had not done enough to woo back the local investors who
left the market.

Adeleke cautioned NSE and SEC on what he described as the
overemphasis on foreign investors to the detriment of domestic investors.

He said that the current market’s dependence on foreign
portfolio investment was a “dangerous trend’’ that would make the Nigerian
bourse perpetually depressed on account of their investment character.

Mr Godwin Anono, Chairman of the Nigerian Professional
Shareholders Association (NPSA), urged the regulators to ensure strict
post-listing requirements.

Anono said that poor implementation of post-listing
requirements had misled investors who had no means of cross-checking material
facts about quoted companies.

He also said that the government’s ability to successfully
woo back delisted companies on the NSE could assist in restoring investors’
confidence in the market.