The delay by President Muhammadu Buhari in appointing ministers and other key officials as well as the lack of clear information about his government’s policy direction have been major deterrents to investment in the nation’s capital market.
Capital market analysts say investors, especially foreigners, were unlikely to make significant investment in the market, if any at all until, they had a clear picture of the policy direction of the government.
They cited the depreciating the value of equities listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange which has continued to fall a month after the president sworn in, with investors losing huge amounts of money, with the decline put at N238bn or 2.04 per cent, while the NSE All-Share Index fell by 2.47 per cent or 849.87 basis points.
A financial analyst at WSTC Financial Services Limited, Olutola Oni, had this to say:
“When the elections were conducted peacefully and the transition was peaceful, people expected that the incoming government would consolidate on that, roll out the list of those that would form the new government and make one or two policy statements.
But up till now, apart from the fact that the government moved the military command centre to Borno State, no other policy statement has been made, not even as regards the issue of the fuel crisis. Everything has been virtually the same; just like nothing happened on the political scene.”