FMDQ launches Debt Capital Market Development project

FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange (FMDQ) has launched the Debt Capital Market Development (DCMD) Project to implement the recommendations drawn from the Debt Capital Market (DCM) workshop in October, according to an official statement.

The launching took place last week during the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Third Quarter Capital Market Committee (CMC).

“The DCM workshop on `the Nigerian Debt Capital Markets – Toward a Brighter Future’, was organized by FMDQ, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with the support of SEC,” according to the statement.

“The sole aim of the workshop is to harness the capacity and potential of the domestic DCM and facilitate the exchange of ideas for enhancing and deepening the Nigerian financial market.’’

The workshop, which was attended by domestic and international financial market experts and regulators, considered various challenges limiting the growth of the Nigerian DCM.

The resolutions of the workshop had been translated into the Nigerian DCM Transformation Roadmap to be executed through the DCMD Project.

The statement said that the DCMD project “seeks to fast-track the realisation of the DCM initiatives in the SEC’s 10-Year Nigerian Capital Market Master Plan (NCMMP)’’.

It said that the vision of the DCMD project was also aligned with the Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020 initiative aimed at making Nigeria one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020.

It said that at the end of the DCMD project, “it is expected that the Nigerian DCM would surpass its peers in Africa in terms of diversity of products including plain vanilla products and derivatives, liquidity, credibility and transparency.

“The project will also position Nigeria as the ultimate investment destination in Africa,’’ the statement said.