Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, has hailed the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, saying he has contributed enormously to the growth of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Mr. Elumelu, who is also the Chairman of Transcorp Hillton, spoke at a two-day stakeholders’ forum on realising the full potentials of the Nigerian economy through proactive capital market legislation.

He said Mr. Dangote’s cement has helped to deepen the market and the Nigerian economy.

According to him, the private sector has the most capital to drive the country’s economy.

Mr. Dangote is a strong promoter of local content development in Nigeria and his company-the Dangote Cement-controls a third of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It is the biggest quoted company in West Africa.

Mr. Elumelu, who presented a keynote paper titled: “Deepening the capital market to include privatised and systematically important entities,” regretted that only few state-owned privatized enterprises were so far listed on the stock market.

He said the government must focus on providing the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismark Rewane, said if the Dangote cement were to be discounted from the Nigerian stock market, the market would have been in trouble.

Mr. Rewane presented a paper titled: The Nigerian Capital Market: ‘Becoming Africa’s Most Modern, Efficient and Internationally Competitive by 2025.’

He said there was the need to ask questions about what went wrong despite all the economic measures put in place by successive governments.

He concluded that the Nigerian economy was lacking in investors’ confidence.

Speaking earlier in a paper titled: Demutualizing the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Chief Executive of the Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the demutualization of the Exchange will be favorable to all stakeholders.

He said: “Demutualization will support the economy in its ability to withstand domestic and international economic shocks, it will also support the Federal Government in driving Nigeria’s economy.”

•Photo shows Aliko Dangote.