Nigerian Exchange bars eight companies from trading

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has banned eight companies listed on the bourse from trading for falling short of a rule requiring quoted firms to file audited annual reports ahead of a specified deadline, according to a Monday market document seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The punitive action remains in force until the companies hand in their outstanding 2023 audited financials to the exchange, the document stated.

Mutual Benefits Assurance, Lasaco Assurance, Unity Bank, C & I Leasing, Secure Electronic Technology, Guinea Insurance, NPF Microfinance Bank and Regency Alliance Insurance are the companies serving the sanction.

Unity Bank, backed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, is the only listed bank yet to publish its earnings report for 2023. The government agency, which was set up to buy bad loans off banks’ balance sheets and recover them afterwards, is Unity Bank’s top shareholder, holding more than one-third of its issued shares.

“If an Issuer fails to file the relevant accounts by the expiration of the Cure Period1, the exchange will (a) send to the issuer a “Second Filing Deficiency Notification” within two (2) business days after the end of the Cure Period,” NGX said in a document signed by Godstime Iwenekhai, who heads its issuer regulation department.

A cure period often spans 90 calendar days, beginning from the first day of the year till around the end of the first quarter. Apart from weekdays, weekends and public holidays are considered calendar days.

The exchange is duty-bound to notify the capital market regulator, “the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the market within twenty- four (24) hours of the suspension,” the document added.

Regency Alliance Insurance stated in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it is facing constraints “in migrating our reporting standard from IFRS4 to IFRS 17.” IFRS refers to the International Financial Reporting Standard, an international organisation which provides the rules and guidelines for preparing accounts for companies.

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“The effect of this challenge is that the company was not able to file its Audited Financial Statement (AFS) for the year ended 31 December 2023 and the unaudited financial statement for the first quarter ended 31 March 2024 (2024 Q1 UFS) within the stipulated period,” the underwriter said.

It has assured that it will file both its audited financials for 2023 and its unaudited financial report for the first quarter by 15 August.