No fewer than 16 companies have been penalised by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for market-related offences between 2020 and 2022.
Investors King gathered that the total sum of N779.5 million was imposed as fine on the erring companies that cut across manufacturing, food, insurance, consumer goods, technology, banking industries amongst others.
The penalty was as a result of non-compliance with some of the rules and requirements of the exchange for the timely filing of results and accounts by the company.
The NGX data shows that in 2022, fourteen companies were fined the sum of N170.6 million. They include: ETI, FBN Holdings Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Presco Plc, Ardova Plc, C&I Leasing Plc, Coronation Insurance Plc, Royal Exchange Plc, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, LASACO Assurance Plc, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc and Omatek Ventures Plc.
While in 2021, seven companies were sanctioned N586 million and in 2020, the sum of N22.9 million was imposed as fine on three business firms.
Breakdown of the trade offenses and fines for the companies indicates that Coronation Insurance was fined N14.9 million, C & I Leasing was fined N11.6 million while a fine of 9.7 million was imposed on Ardova in 2022.
The NGX fined Presco N5.1 million, Honeywell Flour Mills N1.2 million for failure to submit third quarter 2021 result and account before the deadline.
For the erring financial companies, in 2022, ETI was sanctioned N3.2m; in 2021, FBN Holdings was fined N8.1m, Union Bank of Nigeria got N1.2m fine, Fidelity Bank Plc was fined N1.6m while Unity Bank Plc was sanctioned N4.2m.
An Information and Communications Technology firm, Omatek Ventures got a fine of N537.2m in 2022 for refusal to present audited results and accounts for 2015–2018 to the investing public.
LASACO Assurance was penalised N29.2m between 2020 and 2022 for not complying with some post-listing requirements. In 2022, N5.3m was levied for failure to submit its 2021 audited financial statement to the investing public, while in 2021, N15.1m was fined for not presenting the audited 2020 result and accounts.
The company was also sanctioned N8.8m in 2020 for failure to submit audited 2019, first quarter 2020 and second quarter 2020 financial results.
Investors King learnt that the sanctions on the listed companies have discouraged investors from trading in their stock due to the huge fines.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
