Good morning distinguished ladies and gentlemen:
It is with great pleasure and sense of pride that I welcome you to the first ever market data workshop, hosted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE or The Exchange) and perhaps the first in Nigeria. I want to thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here and share this experience with us. When I came up with the idea late last year, the heavy lifting was left to my team to do. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my extraordinary team for putting together this event, in particular, Mr. Ade Bajomo, the Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology at the NSE, for driving it to fruition. Let me also thank our esteemed sponsors, Bloomberg, Infoware, Global Trybe Solutions, ARM, Samsung, Zanibal, Wapic Insurance and Ntel for helping to make this workshop a reality.
When we talk about market data, we refer to the pre and post trade-related data for the financial instruments traded on the NSE. Our market data informs traders, investors, media and others in our market on the quotations, latest price, and historical trends for the equities, fixed-income, and ETF products that are traded on our platform. This information is not only used in real time to make instantaneous buy and sell decisions, but the historical market data is used to make price projections, as well as calculate market risk on investment portfolios.
For Exchanges, delivery of market data to users is resource heavy and requires specialized technologies designed to handle the collection, processing and dissemination of massive data streams. At the NSE, this effort is underpinned by our ‘next generation’ trading engine, X-GEN, which was built in collaboration with Nasdaq in 2013. It is therefore very pleasant that this workshop is coinciding with the 3rd anniversary of X-GEN.
X-GEN is not only built to trade a wide range of securities, it is extendable to multiple interfaces for the consumption of market data. Additionally, it is FIX protocol version 5 enabled, improving market transparency and providing wide market access. It is these systems that we rely on daily to deliver approximately 2.5GB worth of data to our various domestic and global market data consumers. Excellence drives our services, thus we continually challenge ourselves to deliver our data faster and in more easily accessible formats to our clients.
In spite of the challenging economic conditions we are experiencing in Nigeria, the capital market still remains one of the main vehicles for economic development and wealth creation. The NSE Premium Board has returned 11.3% YTD 17th October 2016. The level of private sector time deposits have declined by 14.4% to N3.8tn over the last one year (Sep ’15 to Aug ’16), while private sector savings deposits have increased by 19.0% to N3.5tn. The average interest rate on these savings and time deposits are 3.6% and 5.9% respectively. With an average inflation rate of 12.7% over the last year, the NSE Market Data Workshop, themed, “Understanding Market Data for Savvy Investing and Wealth Creation” could not be more apt.
Domestic investors, and indeed foreign portfolio investors, require an elevated level of insight in order to discern between great investments and lame investments, especially during a challenging down cycle. That is why this workshop is designed specifically to provide capital market participants with sufficient knowledge about exploiting NSE market data for smart investment decisions.
Gathered here today are leaders and experts in the global financial services sector; representatives of Independent Software Providers (ISPs); Market Data Vendors (MDVs); our colleagues from the telecommunications sector; other capital market participants; and many thought leaders of our great nation. Through the course of today’s proceedings, our keynote speakers and distinguished team of panellists will discuss in detail, the current trends, appetite and views on the future consumption of market data. You will also hear about the market data products available at the NSE and what we are rolling out down the line.
You will hear from our internal experts who mine our market data for delivery to our clients, and from the end users themselves who will be walking you through series of demonstrations that should shed some light on the various flexible market data licensing models available at the NSE. Our very important market data vendors here with us will be sharing their experiences on how they have dealt with the challenges of working with Exchange market data. They will also be providing us with innovative methods of gaining business benefits, managing cost and implementing successful strategies using market data. Furthermore we will gain insights on practical approaches to market data contracts, and overall compliance in an era of rising regulatory requirements in the financial services sector.
As we go through the current challenging economic headwinds, I have no doubt that the presentations and discussions here today will provide us with a deeper understanding of the opportunities that are available through the effective use of market data in the Nigerian capital market.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that we are set for an exciting workshop and I hope that our market participants and the wider ecosystem are inspired by the NSE Market Data Workshop to become more innovative in the use of market data as they strive to leapfrog performance through the use of the many market data solutions offered by the NSE.
I thank you for your attention, and once more, I welcome you to this important workshop.
Oscar N. Onyema, OON
Chief Executive Officer
