April 4 (Easy kobo)- Mr. Oscar Onyema has taken over the reigns at the Nigerian Stock Exchange replacing interim administrator Emmanuel Ikazoboh. The new CEO rang the opening bell at the start of the trading day this morning. Mr. Onyema is the former vice president of the American Stock Exchange, an exchange specializing in ETF's. Wecould very well see an EFT (Exchange Traded Fund) introduced inNigeriasooner rather than later. Visit www.easykobo.com to stay updated on Nigeria's financial environment.
Mr. Emmanual Ikazoboh has been the interim administrator since August 2010 when Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke was removed as measures to improve oversight of the exchange. There had been allegations of price fixing and unethical practices at the NSE during that period. NSE lost more than 60% of its capitalization value between February 2008 and July 2009.
There is a lot of praise due for Emmanual Ikazoboh who facedmany critical problems at NSE in a timely manner and introduced critical reforms. Some of the key decisions made under Ikazoboh include increase in trading time by 2 hours which led to an increase in trading volumed on the floor, trade-ban on under capitalized stock brokers, suspending companies that delayed filing reports with the SEC and alsoreducing employee count. A lot of crippling problems at the NSE weresorted outin Ikazoboh's short tenure as the interim administrator of Nigerian Stock Exchange and he deserves a lot of praise for these reforms.
Brent Crude surged past $121 a barrel at London's ICE futures today. Brent Crude for May delivery rose by $2.36 to settle at $121.06 after touching a high of $121.29 a barrel earlier in the day.
In New York, NYMEX futures for May delivery rose by 53 cents to close at $108.47 a barrel, highest since August 2008.
There are a number of factors leading to such high oil price levels. Apart from ongoing unrest in Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain political instability in Nigeria and strikes in Gabonare adding to supply concerns and pushing the oil prices higher.
Nigeria benefits from oil prices when it sells crude oilbut ends up paying more for importing petroleum products as Nigeria lacks refining capacity to meet its own needs.Nigeria needs to boost its foreign reserves and protect its currency from devaluation if real economic growth has to occur. Rising oil prices could lead to increase in inflation in Nigeria which is already high at 11.1%.