The Ministry of Finance has summoned the regulators of the financial sector of the economy to a meeting to find ways of stemming the daily losses recorded on the country’s capital market. The institutions invited to the meeting include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The Director-General of NSE, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke told dealers on the Lagos floor of the NSE that the meeting became necessary following huge losses recorded by investors in the capital market. It would be recalled that investors have so far lost about 37 percent of their cumulative investments between March 5 and August 22, 2008. Meanwhile, the NSE, dealers and chief executives of commercial banks met yesterday at the exchange to prepare a common position for the meeting with government. Okereke-Onyiuke said that apart from seeing the input of operators in the capital market toward engendering market based confindence, they would also use the platform to seek understanding of the banks on borrowed funds by investors.

\"While we appreciate that the issue is purely business, we are going to appeal to banks CEOs to show more understanding on the current state of the market,\" she said. Apparently disturbed by the impact of the current equity losses on investors, Okereke-Onyiuke said that the meeting between market regulators, dealers and banks CEOs would come up with business approach that would leverage the market further.