Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the country’s economy cannot thrive without a strong and virile capital market.
He stressed the need for the Federal Government to source medium and long-term funds from the nation’s capital market to execute capital projects.
Obasanjo said that the capital market had always been a platform where individuals could undertake capital formation, while corporate organisations and governments at all levels could mobilise medium and long-term funds for development projects.
He said these in a closed-door meeting with the principal officers of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Friday.
“No economy can thrive without a strong and virile capital market because there is a correlation between the development of an economy and its capital market,” the erstwhile President said.
He advised the Federal Government to take advantage of the capital market to revive the economy by sourcing for cheap funds to finance budget deficit and execute the capital projects in the 2016 fiscal budget.
Obasanjo, therefore, endorsed the ongoing capital market literacy programme of the CIS as a veritable strategy to expose Nigerians to the preeminent position of the capital market in the development of any economy.
The CIS has embarked upon lecture series in schools, churches, mosques, club houses and a host of others to create awareness of the benefits of the capital market.
Obasanjo commended the institute for taking its enlightenment programme on the relevance of the capital market to the development of Nigeria’s economy to the doorstep of every citizen.
(PUNCH)