As part of his 60th birthday celebration on Monday, the past council president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Alhaji Aliko Dangote has promised to ensure the listing of Refinery, Petrochemical, Fertiliser Plants, other companies coming up under the Dangote Group of Companies on the Exchange.
He made this known at the bell ringing ceremony to celebrate his diamond jubilee on the Exchange in Lagos on Monday.
According to Dangote, we will continue work with the federal government to diversify the economy and spread prosperity to Nigerians.
He stated that, “We will list every single companies that will be created by Dangote Group of companies under me.
“Every soon, we will start having our annual general meetings in stadium not halls due to the large shareholders we will be targeting. We will be having up to two million shareholders in the next ten years.”
He commended the stock broking community, saying they have contributed a lot to Dangote Group and the support has been very tremendous.
Four of Dangote’s companies listed on the NSE with a total market capitalisation of N2.9 trillion as at April 10, 2017, representing 32.7 per cent of the total capitalisation of the equities listed on the Nigerian bourse.
Speaking on behalf of the capital market community, the former president of Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), Mr Rasheed Yussuf said that Dangote is an important stakeholder in the Nigerian capital market, saying that “His decision to celebrate his birthday with the capital market community is a testimony to the mutually beneficially relationship to which has been involved over the years between Dangote, brokers and capital market in generally.”
He noted that the government of Dangote as the president of NSE was the most challenging period for the capital market, saying on one hand the NSE was faced with a serious management succession crisis, while on the other hand the market had to contend with the ralvaging margin loans crisis.
“Dangote worked tirelessly with the Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), leveraging on his contacts to make presentation to the various level of government functionality, CBN, among others culminating in the setting up of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and eventual resolution of the margin loan problems.”
He noted further that if the margin loan crisis has not been resolved the way it was the collateral damage on the operators and the market will have been so profound.
He added that as a strong promoter of local content development in Nigeria, Dangote took the pioneering step of listing most of his companies on the floor of NSE, substantially deepening the market.
According to Yussuf, the listing company constitute a reasonable percentage of equities listed on the board and the expectation are high that the new project concurrently being undertaking in the country by the group such as fertiliser plant, Refinery Plant, Agricultural Projects among others will also be listed soon.
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