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Restructuring Registrars is a Welcome Devt
- By Leo Okoro
- Published Monday 1st 2010
- Smartmoney
- Unrated
IT is common knowledge that the problem of capital market can not be resolved without addressing the issue of Registrars. Registrars are very vital to the capital market because of the pivotal rules they play in bringing efficiency to the market.
We are living witnesses that most of the problems experienced in the previous year were partly non release of share certificates and non availability of the shares after the company listed. We all know that Big Treat got listed at N3.42 but because of scarcity of its shares in the market, non release of share certificates and non release of verified shares certificates to the system the price moved to N15, not only Big Treat, so many companies were affected as their prices went higher because of the lack of availability of their stocks to the investing public.
A lot of investors have made it very clear that after the conclusion of offers their allotments have not been released, they never get their share certificates six months after the offer, sometimes a year after. It is a welcome development to see that the new director general Securities and Exchange Commission (Sec) say that the commission has to address the issue of problems facing the registrars.
I believe this is the right statement at the right time, for you to have efficient market the mind of the clients should be free from anything that will make them lose confidence in the market.
That is why when the Nigerian stock Exchange (NSE) took a decision that no company shall get listed by introduction until it makes 10 per cent of its issue share capital available to the public before it was reduce to 5 per cent, people with foresight applauded the idea. This idea is good because from the moment they started applying this rule, scarcity of stock on the floor of the Exchange was reduced to some extent because at the point of introduction you will see that at least 5 per cent of the share capitalisation will be made available, so if this is available to the investing public they can take as much as they want.
Most of the problems on the capital market come from the registrars. Take the case of unclaimed dividend as an example; registrars are the one distributing dividend which is the one of their responsibilities to make dividend available to the investors.
As soon as the issuers issue a cheque it should be cleared by the registrars but today we have seen different things, companies have come to declare both interim and final dividend and bonus and gave the closure date but 2 months after that investors can not get their warrant, when you go to registrars they either tell you that the dividend warrant is not yet printed or it is in process.
SEC come with e-dividend which is very good, I don’t think there is any investor that does not have a bank account. But if there is any of them that do not have a bank account that investor should know that it is good to invest in capital market and should also know that he needs a bank account to clear the dividend.
If SEC makes this as a rule that every investor must open an account before he or she started investing in capital market, I believe it will make investing in capital market easier and it will definitely reduce the work of Registrars.
Not only that, there is a pending rule by Central Bank of Nigeria that you can not issue cheque that is above N10 million. Therefore it is now mandatory for every investor especially institutional investors to give their bank account so that as soon as dividend is declared their account will automatically be credited.
Just as our address is important we equally need bank account and if it is made available the issue of unclaimed dividend will be over and it will now left to those companies that will declare dividend without cash backing, so it will be very obvious to us if dividend is not paid we will know that the company that declare dividend are the one that not pay and the shareholders will be able to challenge the directors who declare dividend without pay.
The other issue is bonus certificate declared by the companies which have been left either in the post office or in the hand of registrars. E-bonus introduced by SEC is also a good development were bonus would be credited directly to Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) account of the investors and I believed that investors that doesn’t have this account should also try to get one, it does not take anything to open this account, the time has come to dematerialize our certificates.
We must make all our certificate e-payment look for instance, e-products in banking industry makes bank work easier and if we in the capital market embrace this system and dematerialize our share certificates and convert everything to CSCS, the problem we are facing now will be over.
Definitely it will bring liquidity to the market and increase the efficiency in the nation’s capital market.
Experience a Windfall Exporting Okra
THE current food crisis ravaging the world could have been averted had America paid more attention to agriculture than war in the Middle East. Africa could have salvaged the world from the food shortage if Nigeria is a country that reckons with history and the statistics that say her economy was vibrant based on agriculture before the advent of crude oil. The indiscretions of these two great nations of the world have invariably exacerbated world hunger, unemployment, poverty and disease. Going back to the drawing board to reinvigorate agriculture will contribute immensely to attaining the United Nations vision 2015 of improving peoples income and standard of living. Improved agricultural productivity in Nigeria will create opportunities to better the lives of individuals. Such opportunities include increase in production of the best variety of Okra for export.
The Project
The project is all about making money from export of Okra. Okra, also referred to as lady’s fingers (Hibiscus Esculentus) is also pronounced Okro. It is an annual, herbaceous shrub which belongs to the malvaceae (mallow) family along with cotton. It is readily identifiable by its beautiful, pale-yellow flowers. Okra originated in Ethiopia. The ancient Egyptians cultivated it in the 12th Century B.C. Its cultivation spread to North Africa and the Middle East. The West African slaves introduced Okra to the Caribbean and United State of America in the 1700s. The spread later reached Western Europe. In Louisiana, the Creoles learned from the slaves the use of okra (Gumbo) to thicken soup. Okra is a tropical plant which grows best in warm climates. It is available year round, with a peak season during the summer months. It is cultivated abundantly in Nigeria.
Uses and Nutrition
The seedpods and leaves of okra are edible. The seedpods are eaten cooked, and the seeds are toasted and ground, and used as a coffee substitute. The young pods can be used in stir-fry and soup either blanched or pickled. When cooked, it resembles asparagus, yet it may be left raw and served in a cold salad. They tender, unriped seedpods are used as vegetables and have a unique texture and sweet flavour. The pods when cut, exudes a mucilaginous juice that is used to thicken stews and soups.
Okra can be sauteed with corn kernels onions and sweet peppers, fried when very young, while its tender pods can be sliced, dipped in egg, breaded with corn meal and fried (a favourite in the Southern United States). Okra can also be steamed, baked, pickled, boiled or stewed. Because of its similar flavour, it can be used in place of eggplant in many recipes. The flavour blends well with acid foods, such as tomatoes. Locally, it is used in preparing Zobo drink.
Okra is a good source of vitamin A,C and B complex, iron, and calcium. It is low in calories a good source of dietary fibre and fat-free
Purchasing, handling and storage:
The best variety of okra is the rich green colour. Avoid pods that are dull and dry looking, blemished or limp. Store in a paper bag in a warm environment as temperature below 45oC can damage okra. Exporting involves bagging and the bags loaded into containers that are mostly 40 ft long.
Export market Potential and Strategy
Okra has been a regular export product from Nigeria. It is cultivated in abundance in the country ready for export. Today okra is popular in African, the Middle East, Greece, Turkey, India, the Caribbean, South America, and the Southern U.S. Due to increased interests in American regional foods, these bright green, tender pods have gained more respect as vegetable in the U.S, aside from its use as a thickener. The continued widening gap in the demand and supply of okra in Western countries creates an opportunity for a discerning investor to seize and make huge profits exporting the product. Despite the large export market for okra, local demand is also on the high side. A well articulated export marketing strategy is required as okra is a perishable commodity. International export packaging and quality standards must be attained for the product to penetrate the international market. Local standards and legislation must also be adhered to. Foreign buyers ought to have been established before shipment is made. Payments system are arranged to ensure timely recoupment of the proceed of the export. The investor need not to travel overseas to effect this transaction. Rather he ensures that all necessary export documentation is effected for smooth transaction.
Implementation
Okra export business is highly recommended by the writer to aspiring investors because it is very easy to operate, non-capital intensive and quite lucrative. Okra is highly demanded in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, and commands a global market price of about U.S $1800 per metric tonne. A minimum of N100,000.00 is adequate to start this business in view of complementary funding from the financial institutions. The writer strongly advises prospective investors to carry out feasibility study to establish the profit potential of this business before implementation. The writer is available to assist interested exporters to make this business a success.
We are living witnesses that most of the problems experienced in the previous year were partly non release of share certificates and non availability of the shares after the company listed. We all know that Big Treat got listed at N3.42 but because of scarcity of its shares in the market, non release of share certificates and non release of verified shares certificates to the system the price moved to N15, not only Big Treat, so many companies were affected as their prices went higher because of the lack of availability of their stocks to the investing public.
A lot of investors have made it very clear that after the conclusion of offers their allotments have not been released, they never get their share certificates six months after the offer, sometimes a year after. It is a welcome development to see that the new director general Securities and Exchange Commission (Sec) say that the commission has to address the issue of problems facing the registrars.
I believe this is the right statement at the right time, for you to have efficient market the mind of the clients should be free from anything that will make them lose confidence in the market.
That is why when the Nigerian stock Exchange (NSE) took a decision that no company shall get listed by introduction until it makes 10 per cent of its issue share capital available to the public before it was reduce to 5 per cent, people with foresight applauded the idea. This idea is good because from the moment they started applying this rule, scarcity of stock on the floor of the Exchange was reduced to some extent because at the point of introduction you will see that at least 5 per cent of the share capitalisation will be made available, so if this is available to the investing public they can take as much as they want.
Most of the problems on the capital market come from the registrars. Take the case of unclaimed dividend as an example; registrars are the one distributing dividend which is the one of their responsibilities to make dividend available to the investors.
As soon as the issuers issue a cheque it should be cleared by the registrars but today we have seen different things, companies have come to declare both interim and final dividend and bonus and gave the closure date but 2 months after that investors can not get their warrant, when you go to registrars they either tell you that the dividend warrant is not yet printed or it is in process.
SEC come with e-dividend which is very good, I don’t think there is any investor that does not have a bank account. But if there is any of them that do not have a bank account that investor should know that it is good to invest in capital market and should also know that he needs a bank account to clear the dividend.
If SEC makes this as a rule that every investor must open an account before he or she started investing in capital market, I believe it will make investing in capital market easier and it will definitely reduce the work of Registrars.
Not only that, there is a pending rule by Central Bank of Nigeria that you can not issue cheque that is above N10 million. Therefore it is now mandatory for every investor especially institutional investors to give their bank account so that as soon as dividend is declared their account will automatically be credited.
Just as our address is important we equally need bank account and if it is made available the issue of unclaimed dividend will be over and it will now left to those companies that will declare dividend without cash backing, so it will be very obvious to us if dividend is not paid we will know that the company that declare dividend are the one that not pay and the shareholders will be able to challenge the directors who declare dividend without pay.
The other issue is bonus certificate declared by the companies which have been left either in the post office or in the hand of registrars. E-bonus introduced by SEC is also a good development were bonus would be credited directly to Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) account of the investors and I believed that investors that doesn’t have this account should also try to get one, it does not take anything to open this account, the time has come to dematerialize our certificates.
We must make all our certificate e-payment look for instance, e-products in banking industry makes bank work easier and if we in the capital market embrace this system and dematerialize our share certificates and convert everything to CSCS, the problem we are facing now will be over.
Definitely it will bring liquidity to the market and increase the efficiency in the nation’s capital market.
Experience a Windfall Exporting Okra
THE current food crisis ravaging the world could have been averted had America paid more attention to agriculture than war in the Middle East. Africa could have salvaged the world from the food shortage if Nigeria is a country that reckons with history and the statistics that say her economy was vibrant based on agriculture before the advent of crude oil. The indiscretions of these two great nations of the world have invariably exacerbated world hunger, unemployment, poverty and disease. Going back to the drawing board to reinvigorate agriculture will contribute immensely to attaining the United Nations vision 2015 of improving peoples income and standard of living. Improved agricultural productivity in Nigeria will create opportunities to better the lives of individuals. Such opportunities include increase in production of the best variety of Okra for export.
The Project
The project is all about making money from export of Okra. Okra, also referred to as lady’s fingers (Hibiscus Esculentus) is also pronounced Okro. It is an annual, herbaceous shrub which belongs to the malvaceae (mallow) family along with cotton. It is readily identifiable by its beautiful, pale-yellow flowers. Okra originated in Ethiopia. The ancient Egyptians cultivated it in the 12th Century B.C. Its cultivation spread to North Africa and the Middle East. The West African slaves introduced Okra to the Caribbean and United State of America in the 1700s. The spread later reached Western Europe. In Louisiana, the Creoles learned from the slaves the use of okra (Gumbo) to thicken soup. Okra is a tropical plant which grows best in warm climates. It is available year round, with a peak season during the summer months. It is cultivated abundantly in Nigeria.
Uses and Nutrition
The seedpods and leaves of okra are edible. The seedpods are eaten cooked, and the seeds are toasted and ground, and used as a coffee substitute. The young pods can be used in stir-fry and soup either blanched or pickled. When cooked, it resembles asparagus, yet it may be left raw and served in a cold salad. They tender, unriped seedpods are used as vegetables and have a unique texture and sweet flavour. The pods when cut, exudes a mucilaginous juice that is used to thicken stews and soups.
Okra can be sauteed with corn kernels onions and sweet peppers, fried when very young, while its tender pods can be sliced, dipped in egg, breaded with corn meal and fried (a favourite in the Southern United States). Okra can also be steamed, baked, pickled, boiled or stewed. Because of its similar flavour, it can be used in place of eggplant in many recipes. The flavour blends well with acid foods, such as tomatoes. Locally, it is used in preparing Zobo drink.
Okra is a good source of vitamin A,C and B complex, iron, and calcium. It is low in calories a good source of dietary fibre and fat-free
Purchasing, handling and storage:
The best variety of okra is the rich green colour. Avoid pods that are dull and dry looking, blemished or limp. Store in a paper bag in a warm environment as temperature below 45oC can damage okra. Exporting involves bagging and the bags loaded into containers that are mostly 40 ft long.
Export market Potential and Strategy
Okra has been a regular export product from Nigeria. It is cultivated in abundance in the country ready for export. Today okra is popular in African, the Middle East, Greece, Turkey, India, the Caribbean, South America, and the Southern U.S. Due to increased interests in American regional foods, these bright green, tender pods have gained more respect as vegetable in the U.S, aside from its use as a thickener. The continued widening gap in the demand and supply of okra in Western countries creates an opportunity for a discerning investor to seize and make huge profits exporting the product. Despite the large export market for okra, local demand is also on the high side. A well articulated export marketing strategy is required as okra is a perishable commodity. International export packaging and quality standards must be attained for the product to penetrate the international market. Local standards and legislation must also be adhered to. Foreign buyers ought to have been established before shipment is made. Payments system are arranged to ensure timely recoupment of the proceed of the export. The investor need not to travel overseas to effect this transaction. Rather he ensures that all necessary export documentation is effected for smooth transaction.
Implementation
Okra export business is highly recommended by the writer to aspiring investors because it is very easy to operate, non-capital intensive and quite lucrative. Okra is highly demanded in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, and commands a global market price of about U.S $1800 per metric tonne. A minimum of N100,000.00 is adequate to start this business in view of complementary funding from the financial institutions. The writer strongly advises prospective investors to carry out feasibility study to establish the profit potential of this business before implementation. The writer is available to assist interested exporters to make this business a success.
