Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema has expressed the readiness of the Exchange to partner with credible musicians to grow the industry using the capital market as an instrument.
In his welcome address during the flag off of the 2016 Music Week Africa Thursday at the Exchange, he said “NSE is most pleased to host the second edition, and the first in Lagos, of this event here at the Nigerian Stock Exchange”.
“We are proud to be associated with an event that seeks to explore and develop the various aspects of the African and global music industry, with a view to creating jobs and wealth accumulation through the capital markets.
“Less than a decade ago, the Nigerian airwaves were dominated by international songs, and most club DJs had to ensure that the majority of tracks on their playlists are foreign or risk the loss of their audience. More worrisome is the fact that Nigerian artists earned peanuts from royalty and performance. Today the story has all but changed. Our African grown music now dominate not only our clubs, music and TV stations but the airwaves of major African countries and the world at large.
According to him, the African Music Landscape has grown significantly in the past few years. Nigeria’s entertainment and media market is the fastest-expanding major market globally. By 2019, the market will be more than twice as big, with estimated total revenue of US$8.1 billion. The South Africa’s entertainment and media market continues its run of double-digit year-on-year growth, and is set to reach R176.3bn ($13.04bn) by 2019. Kenya’s entertainment and media market is set to surpass US$3 billion in 2019.
Annually, the Nigerian music industry produces thousands of albums of different genres of music. Record sales have more than tripled in the past five years and industry stakeholders have projected that the country’s entertainment industry would hit US$1 billion dollars this year. The industry has the potential to do much more, and this why Music Week Africa (MWA) is bringing together key stakeholders to start the conversation about enabling sustainable growth in the entertainment industry across the continent.
We are particularly proud to partner with Music Week Africa to promote the business of music and accelerate the growth of this sector in Africa. The Music Week Africa platform provides opportunities for sector players, investors and collaborators to close deals, network, connect as well as increase their capacity to develop profitable and sustainable business models for the music and entertainment industry on the continent
Onyeama said “We believe that substantial capital is required for the music industry to achieve its potential in Africa. The Nigerian Stock Exchange has positioned itself as the African Exchange of choice for African issuers and global investors looking to use capital markets to raise both equities and debt capital. With a total market capitalization of N15.7tr ($49.88m) across all of our product categories, we have implemented far-reaching transformational policies aimed at strengthening and providing products that are aligned to investors’ requirements, improve market access, while ensuring a fair and orderly market.
“These deliverables have improved investor confidence and repositioned firms listed on the Exchange as attractive investment opportunities. We encourage the entertainment industry to look seriously at leveraging the opportunities that abound in the capital market in Nigeria.
“Globally, long term growth is often achieved through public quotation on an Exchange. We believe that this growth and more can only be achieved by having companies in the entertainment industry listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. As Nigeria’s foremost Exchange we are certain that we are well positioned to help your industry achieve its full potentials, as well as reduce the cost of raising capital and building infrastructure to be globally competitive.
I would like to thank Audu Maikori and his team for their efforts in making this platform a reality.
“We are hopeful that the carefully thought out sessions on Licensing, Publishing, Music, Brands,
Event Design & Management would achieve the main objectives of this event and give opportunities to all participants and stakeholders in this sector to network and connect in the pursuit of growing and developing business ideas to move the African music industry to its greatest heights,” Onyema added.
