Leadership at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have lauded the role technology has played in transforming the Exchange, specifically in the acquisition of critical services from Rack Centre, a local Tier III data centre offering carrier-neutral colocation services and owned by Nigerian conglomerate Jagal.

A statement to the media says NSE chief executive officer Oscar N. Onyema recently addressed delegates at a CEO briefing and made reference to the impact of technology, including the NASD trading system on the NSEX-Gen Platform trading engine.

Onyema said technology "will enable the NSE to engage in international best practices, increase its presence in international and regional organisations, aid it in financial market modernisation, and increase its maturity in information security and also in crime reduction."

According to the CEO the NSE today services the largest economy in Africa and is presently championing the development of Africa's financial markets and has become the first West African country member of the World's Federation of Exchanges.

Onyema said the NSE Technology framework was based on leadership through innovation, operational excellence through business transformation, and growth reputation through diversification, and that technology had impacted positively on its efficiency levels.

Ayotunde Coker, managing director of Rack Centre, believes the advantages of outsourcing data centre services through data centre colocation include significant cost reduction, efficient energy consumption, carrier neutrality and therefore diverse connectivity access points, most especially to international undersea fibre cables.