CSCS bags Market Choice Award, celebrated for commitment to market efficiency

Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, Nigeria’s capital market infrastructure, bagged the prestigious Market Choice award and celebrated for its outstanding counterparty trust assurance, broad asset class coverage, enhanced collaboration with market participants and its commitment to market efficiency and growth at the BusinessDay Nigerian Investor Value Awards (NIVA), which took place over the weekend, in Lagos.

According to a press statement from CSCS, stakeholders in the Nigerian capital market extoled CSCS and its leadership for resilience and continuous investment in market-wide initiatives aimed at ensuring the mutual prosperity of all stakeholders.

The event, previously known as the Top CEOs and Next Bulls Awards, has been jointly organized by BusinessDay and the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) since 2015. It was conceived as a platform to celebrate the CEOs of listed companies that have delivered superior value to investors through operating efficiencies, organizational values, and market engagement activities.

The Awards was further expanded to include the CEOs of carefully vetted non-listed companies that could fill a pipeline of initial public offering candidates, particularly companies in which active and informed investors have expressed a strong demand to own their shares if their shareholders decide to take them public.

While receiving the award, the Chief Executive Officer of CSCS Plc, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, said the award was a call for continuous improvement and a boost to CSCS’ tenacious commitment to delivering on market-efficiency initiatives.

According to him, “My colleagues and I would like to dedicate this award to our esteemed participants, whose loyalty, support and constructive feedbacks continue to enhance our operations and broader service to the Nigerian capital market. As we relish this recognition of CSCS as the “Market Choice”, we reiterate our kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement and restate our enthusiasm in furthering our partnerships with esteemed participants and broader stakeholders in our quest for mutual prosperity and in our drive towards enhancing market efficiency and growth.

“I would like to express my profound gratitude to our regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Board of Directors of CSCS for their diligent oversight and for ensuring sound governance which I believe is essential to every corporate’s sustainability and long-term value creation.”

“To my colleagues, some of whom are here with me to receive this award, I say well done but I would continue to remind you that the reward of good work is more work. I know the stakes are higher as we have set new benchmarks, albeit I am more than ever optimistic in our capacity to do more and work with our participants in delivering better experience and value to investors in the Nigerian capital market.”, Mr. Jalo-Waziri added.

Over the past three years, the ordinary shares of CSCS, though not yet listed on the floor of the NGX, actively trades on the Nigerian Autonomous Securities Dealers Over-the-Counter (NASD-OTC) Exchange and has emerged as the most liquid and attractive stock on the NASD-OTC. Last Friday, for instance, CSCS gained 65 kobo or 4.1 per cent to close at N16.65 per unit, consolidating its year-to-date gain to 10.6%, compared to the current bearish performance of equities. More so, the shares of CSCS has rallied 93% over the past three years, in addition to the company growing its dividend payment by 36% over the same period.

Remarkably, a total of 1.64 billion units of CSCS’ shares, valued at N27.06 billion (based on current valuation of N16.50 per share) and representing 38.8% or one-third of the total shares outstanding of the company have been traded over the past three years. The liquidity of the shares is notwithstanding the fact that the top-5 largest shareholders closely hold about two-third of the company’s shares.

The liquidity of the shares of CSCS on the NASD-OTC platform reinforces the strong appetite and demand of retail and institutional shareholders to own CSCS’ shares. In addition to the steady bull run on the share price, CSCS’ steady dividend payment has been a major attraction to investors, who seek stable return on investments.

Photo caption:

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri receiving the Market Choice Award from Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata, Chairman/CEO of the Dantata Foods and Allied Products Limited (DFAP); while from L-R are Mrs. Yetunde Adenaiya, Head, Human Resources; Mrs. Onome Komolafe, Divisional Head, Shared Services; and Elder UK Eke, MFR, Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc during the presentation of Market Choice Award to CSCS Plc at the Nigerian Investor Value Awards (NIVA) 2021 organised by BusinessDay & NGX at the weekend.