Nigerian Exchange Group's Glum Debut Week In Review

A major rebranding was effected this week when the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) launched its new identity as the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group) on April 12th, 2021.

The Exchange, the second biggest in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the main entry points to invest on the continent, has more than 150 listed companies, all included in its benchmark share index.

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The rebranding followed the demutualisation of the NSE which was announced last month — a move that led to the creation of the Nigerian Exchange Group along with its subsidiaries: Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX Limited), the operating exchange; NGX Regulation Limited (NGX REGCO), the independent regulation company; and NGX Real Estate Limited (NGX RELCO), the real estate company.

The group's new website was Monday launched to accommodate the evolution, leading visitors of the NSE's website to its new address — an aesthetically improved interface that is meant to give seamless access to information about the group and its subsidiaries with a simplified user interface.

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However, the Nigerian Exchange Group was off to a rocky start, as its first road bump was a faulty website. User complaints stemmed from poor navigation to slow loading time and the website ultimately crashing for a while. This resulted in many being left in the dark about stock market data for the early days of the week as the site claimed to be under "optimization".

Upon the site's reactivation, users still had grievances about the site not being mobile-friendly and its spewing out error feedbacks when company stock details were sought.

But that was just the beginning of its woes, as the Nigerian Exchange ended its over-the-counter (OTC) debut week with a value dip. On Wednesday, The Nigerian Exchange Group quoted 1.9 billion shares on the over-the-counter market NASD at N25 each, giving it a valuation of N47.5 billion ($125 million), exchange data showed. However, the shares fell to N22.03 at the close of the week.

While we look forward to a better week, it is also worthy of note that according to data retrieved by Allnews, Nigerian stocks are down 4.2 percent this year after rising 50% in 2020 as the world’s best performing market.