L-R: (front) Robert Scharfe, CEO of LuxSE; Oscar N. Onyema, OON, CEO of NSE; (back) Dr. Urs Rüegsegger, Chairman of WFE and SIX Swiss Exchange; Nandini Sukumar, CEO of WFE; Edward Tilly, Vice Chairman of WFE and President, Chairman and CEO of CBOE; Credit: LuxSE

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate in promoting cross listing and trading of green bonds in Nigeria and Luxembourg.

The announcement was made at the signing ceremony led by NSE CEO Oscar N. Onyema, OON and LuxSE CEO Robert Scharfe, which took place during the annual meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in Singapore on Wednesday 9 October 2019. 

The MoU further establishes an agreement for the two exchanges to collaborate with a view to sharing best practices and organising joint initiatives in their respective markets.

According to Oscar N. Onyema: “This collaboration reinforces NSE’s drive to foster the growth of sustainable finance in Nigeria. [...] With the MoU, issuers will enjoy the benefit of increased visibility through the cross listing of their securities in Nigeria and Luxembourg. The partnership will further facilitate the growth of the Green Finance industry in Nigeria”.

Robert Scharfe added: “Sustainable finance is becoming a truly global movement. By joining forces with other exchanges to promote and facilitate green finance, we strive to accelerate the sustainable finance agenda and increase awareness of and interest in investment projects that support the sustainable development that our world needs. We are pleased to cooperate with the Nigerian Stock Exchange to further strengthen sustainable finance in and between our markets”. 

The Nigerian Green bond market received international recognition following the issuance and listing on the NSE of the ₦10.69 billion Federal Government sovereign green bond in December 2017. This issuance sparked significant interest from the international and local capital market communities as it opened new investment opportunities, especially for domestic investors, to increase their exposure to financial instruments that generate social and environmental impact.

LuxSE operates the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), a platform exclusively dedicated to sustainable finance instruments that currently holds a 50% global market share of listed green, social and sustainability bonds. LuxSE works closely with selected stock exchanges around the world to support the growth of sustainable finance.