At a two-day stakeholders’ forum on “Realising the full potentials of the Nigerian economy through proactive capital market legislation” held in Abuja, Tony Elumelu, Chairman Heirs Holdings lamented that “presently, the Nigerian public feel excluded from the Nigerian oil and gas sector as only a small percentage of the elite have so far managed to gain access through processes that are stringent and highly capital intensive.”
He said, “There should be participation of the middle class through the listing of privatised and Systematically Important Entities (SIEs) , since the middle class is the engine of growth of modern economies
Elumelu advised both the executive and legislature “to evolve innovative ways of meeting the aspirations of Nigerians for participation in the oil and gas sector.”
Speaking further, he said “One of such innovations is to make it possible for the Nigerian public to invest in the oil and gas sector by evolving a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which can be floated on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the investing public.”
The shares in the SPV, he said would be coordinated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), seeding a small portion of the equity that it holds in the Joint Ventures (JVs) that it has with International Oil Companies (IOCs) while the IOCs also chip in a small equity “say NNPC six percent, IOCs four percent.”
He added that if approved by the government, the shares of the SPV would be floated on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) such that the public is free to buy, and the revenue realised from the sale of the shares would be able to continuously fund a substantial portion of the JV Cash Call while at the same time meeting the yearnings of the Nigerian public to participate in the oil and gas sector.
According to him, for this to happen “the National Assembly must enact laws that would be investor- friendly to the common man.”
