CSCS Clears, Settles N16.9tn Shares in 15 Years

NSE DG,

By Goddy Egene

The Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc has cleared and settled share transactions worth N16.9 trillion in stock market in the last 16 years. The CSCS is the clearing house of the Nigerian stock market and was established in 1997.

Reviewing its performance over the years, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of CSCS, Mr. Kyari Bukar, said the clearing house had taken care of transactions valued at N16.972 trillion between when it was established and December last year.
Bukar noted that for the 2012 financial year, CSCS cleared and settled transactions valued at N 658.724 billion as against N 634.917 billion in 2011, showing an increase of 3.7 per cent.

Apart from shares, CSCS has also been the clearing house for the over-the-counter bond market (OTC) and treasury bills (TBs).
According to Bukar, the volume of transactions cleared and settled in OTC bond market in 2012 was 7.35 billion units valued at N7.1 trillion compared with 8.95 billion units worth N7.99 trillion in 2011.

In terms of TBs, the CSCS boss disclosed that 14.7 billion units worth N13.92 trillion were cleared and settled in 2012, showing an increase of 24 per cent above the 11.16 billion units valued at N10.81 trillion in 2011.
Speaking on dematerialisation, Bukar said while CSCS had provided the platform for dematerialisation since 1997, a total of 14,164,522 had been dematerialised so far.

Out of these, 264,886 shares were dematerialised in 2012.
He added that during the year under review, 21 shareholders requested for share certificates as against 31 shareholders in the previous year, indicating a decrease of 32l2 per cent in these requests.
According to him, there are now over 4.9 million shareholders in the CSCS System as at the end of 2012, up from 4.88 million shareholders as at 2011.

Bukar disclosed that 168 shareholders used their shareholding in CSCS depository as collateral to obtain loan facilities from financial institutions in year 2012 compared with 324 shareholders in 2011.