VENTURES AFRICA – Tony Elumelu’s Heirs Holdings, the pan-African investment company announced it has taken a strategic stake in the new NASD trading platform which will commence operations on July 1 this year.
The NASD is an alternative trading platform created by the National Association of Securities Dealers to bring more liquidity to Nigeria’s capital markets.
The development comes on the heels of the group’s recent investment in Africa Commodity Exchange Limited (AFEX), which Heirs Holdings co-founded with the US-based Berggruen Holdings, in another move to develop equity and commodity trading in Africa.
NASD will join the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as well as the recently created Alternative Securities Market (ASEM) designed for unlisted stocks and fast-growing SMEs to bring more choice and transparency to thousands of companies looking to trade their shares on an open, regulated market.
Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony O. Elumelu, CON, said, “The NASD offers investors an alternative way of accessing capital for growth in an efficient manner. We have invested in the platform because Heirs Holdings is committed to financing projects that contribute strategically to the growth of entrepreneurs across Africa.”
The CEO of NASD, Mr Bola Ajomale said Heirs Holdings’ “ambition to build commodity exchanges across Africa has meant they intrinsically understand what the NASD wants to achieve.”
He furthered: “Heirs Holdings is the sort of partner we need to ensure that the NASD is supported in its mission to deliver a world class alternative trading platform for unlisted entities in Nigeria.”
The NASD investment will be added to Heirs Holdings’ financial services investment portfolio, which includes the pan-African United Bank for Africa; UBA Capital, the group’s listed investment banking and asset management arm; Africa Prudential Registrars Plc, the only listed share registrar company in Nigeria; and Heirs Insurance Brokers.
Heirs Holdings also has investments in the oil and gas, power, real estate & hospitality, agribusiness and healthcare sectors through a growing number of investee companies in which it takes a significant shareholding.
Oyeniyi Adegoke is a staff writer for Ventures Africa and a business writer with passion for entrepreneurship and disadvantaged kids. He studied Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Lagos whilst co-building an indigenous social platform, ovaloaded.com, before it was bought over. Goke has published an e-book -- X the Box, managed the publishing of a national agricultural magazine and written several business plans and published articles. 
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