Board and management of FMDQ OTC plc last Friday in Lagos hosted its shareholders to its fifth annual general meeting (AGM).
As part of the ordinary business of this AGM, the shareholders received the financial statements of the OTC Securities Exchange for the year ended December 31, 2016, together with the reports of the directors and auditors to the shareholders.
At the AGM, the shareholders reappointed the Auditors – KPMG Professional Services, to serve as the Company’s External Auditors for another year, authorised the Directors to fix the External Auditors’ remuneration, re-elected the members of the Audit Committee and ratified the appointment of two directors, Kennedy Uzoka and Dapo Akisanya.
Presiding over the AGM, the chairman of FMDQ, Sarah O. Alade, said, “The OTC Exchange is in a strong position despite the fact that 2016 was a tough year for all Nigerian businesses.”
At the close of the AGM, Alade announced her retirement from the Board of FMDQ, effective April 28, following her retirement from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which she represented on the Board of FMDQ. She thanked the shareholders, according her, for the pleasure of serving them and her fellow Board members, FMDQ staff members and management team for their individual and collective efforts during her tenure.
FMDQ was able to sustain its growth by continuing to explore new opportunities to expand and enhance its activities, markets and reach. This expansion was clearly noticeable in the listings and quotations business which saw a total of twenty-seven (27) debt securities, amounting to N233.98bn, listed and quoted on the OTC Securities Exchange, and in the number of FMDQ’s members which grew from seventy-five (75), as at December 31, 2015, to one hundred and fifty-seven (157), as at December 31, 2016.
Speaking on the financial performance of the OTC Securities Exchange, Bola Onadele. Koko, Managing Director/CEO, FMDQ noted that in 2016, the challenges in the Nigerian financial markets, particularly, the foreign exchange market, resulted in a 1.71% decrease in FMDQ’s total revenue to N2.04bn from N2.07bn in 2015.
He, however, noted that FMDQ was able to diversify its revenue sources resulting in an increase in the contribution of non-transaction fees to total revenue from 20.56% in 2015 to 32.29% in 2016, in line with its strategic objectives. He further stated that in 2017 the OTC Securities Exchange will focus on, amongst others, the diversification of products offerings to include consolidation of OTC FX futures, the introduction of new derivative products such as fixed income, interest rate and currency derivatives, the establishment of a central clearing house to enhance the credit risk management standards and introduction of post trade services to the OTC cash markets.
