‘Stock market needs technology investment to thrive’

Austin Okere, the founder of CWG Plc, has urged key players in the Nigerian capital market to prioritise investment in technology innovation as well as engage in cross-sector collaboration to boost revenue and survive the emerging market trends.

This was the thrust of his lecture entitled “Reimagining Capital Market Future” which he recently delivered at a workshop jointly organized by the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria (SCGN) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.

Addressing his audience, which comprised of directors and senior management of the dealing member firms of the Exchange, Okere enumerated that outdated systems, largely driving capital market in the country, were not compatible with present business and regulatory environments.

To overcome this, he noted that keeping up with the standard would require substantial spend on technology, adding: “Such investment will impact our Exchange by enabling our platforms to do more as well as give us competitive edge among our contemporaries around the globe.”

He also brought to the consciousness of market players the need for regulated firms to earn the trust of regulators by working in tandem to mitigate any crisis-driven concerns such as thirdparty vendors, cyber-attacks and bureaucratic hindrances.