The professor, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, who is longest- serving Director-General of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), has renewed her call for listing of government commercial ventures and small businesses on the NSE as the only guarantee for sustainability, profitability and continuity.
Okereke-Oyiuke made the renewed call in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in Bonny at the weekend when he attended the reactivation training of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA) at Delight Hotel on King William Pepple Road. The CEO of the NSE who left office in controversial circumstances in 2018 and finally won a favourable reconciliation arbitration with her employers in 2018 said she must continue to tell Nigerians how to grow wealth.
She said governments would only be wasting huge funds if it failed to list those huge ventures on the NSE, saying such efforts as railway stocks without caring about efficient management (that can only come outside the government ownership circles) would never work.
She stated: “I tell Nigerians, don’t shy away from raising money from the stock market. Governments take money to build factories and they die; they build trains but because of lack of supervision, they die. If it is quoted on the stock market and Nigerians buy shares, the managers will sit up and play according to international business rules.”
Okereke-Onyiuke, now a consultant and CEO of Hybrid Consulting Limited, an international resource firm specializing on capital markets, stocks, banking, and wealth creation, simply said, “I now teach people how to make money”.
Urging Nigerian businesses to brave it up and list on the stock market, she said; “Even if your business is worth N20m to N50m, you can go to the 2nd tier market and grow from there. You can then graduate to the 1st tier market. Whether you are on the first or second tier market, it is the same market. It is the same all over the world. Once you join, you will see yourself grow”.
Okereke-Onyiuke served as visiting professor for MBA, MBF and MSC classes for the University of Lagos from 1995 to 1997. She served as Exchange Services Manager and Systems Consultant at the New York Stock Exchange from 1976 to 1983. Since 2000, the Exchange witnessed tremendous changes and growth.
On where Nigerians should expect to find her these days, the influential expert said; “I am now fully involved in consulting business (Hybrid). I have been exposed much in the financial district and this I can help to teach to others. I now train people about the stock market, stock-brokerage, capital market world, etc. I lecture people outside the stock market, banking, and capital market. The more there is knowledge about the capital market, the better for Nigeria. Everything is not government. Government does not create wealth, the private sector does. Government spends money, not create wealth and money. People should deemphasize government.
“I do international consulting and reach lots of friends that are happy that I have retired. I have more time to do consulting work. I teach people how to make money. Everybody has acumen and mine may not be to make money but to teach others how to make money, and then I benefit a little.”
She thrilled the members of the revived BOCCIMA some of them her childhood friends and relations. BOCCIMA was formed in 1983 but it died in the 1990s due to failed expectations. Now, the King of Bonny, His Majesty, (Edward Asimini Dappa Pepple 111, the Perekule X1 and Amanyanabo of Grand Bonny Kingdom) was said to have moved for its reactivation with the help of Mobil Producing Unlimited who executed it through Michharry & Company Limited and Wright Portfolio Consulting Limited as a vehicle for creating a world class economic hub out of Bonny Island.
She said; “So, this BOCCIMA will grow because if you register, you grow your business.” On the training, she said it is wonderful such that the younger generation would have to mix with the older ones and gain knowledge and experience. They would hear how businesses pass through stages.
She went on: “The big names you hear in the industry and these big names you hear about in the banking industry started from somewhere. They had mentors to help them grab the fundamentals. No matter how much money you have, you cannot be reckoned with unless you go to the stock market. The likes of Dangote and Otedola, the big banks, I encouraged them to go public. Once you raise money from the public, you trade with it and grow as you want. Stop going to individuals to raise money. Nobody will give you money.”
The former NSE juggernaut declared to her people: “No matter your size, you have secondary window that you can start with, raise money and grow to join the first tier window. You do not just wake up to become a billionaire overnight. The billionaires we have today in Nigeria became so by being growing steadily. We used to have banks in Nigeria but see where we are today. No organization could have given them money to grow. No international bank would have invested in them. It is when you go public and you are on the stock exchange that companies and individuals will come in because they know you are a structured outfit.”
She promised to join the BOCCIMA and bring her expertise and connections to grow the Island chamber to world class levels.
