We explicate the need and pathways for systematic stock market characterisation and development (SSMCD) and the role of Random Matrix Theory (RMT) in SSMCD research. This is the first time SSMCD, itself a nascent area of empirical finance introduced by the first author, is linked to RMT. Our focus is on the Nigerian Stock Market, particularly using RMT techniques to correlate respective asset prices in the NSM. The resulting insights are combined with those from related works on stochastic-times series analyses of stylised facts and six main market issues typically explored in empirical finance (efficiency, bubbles, anomalies, volatility, valuation and predictability), to illustrate SSMCD pathways in the NSM. Specifically, the RMT analyses focus on the cross-correlation matrix C of the stock index returns in the Nigerian Stock Market (NSM) from the period 2009 to 2013. Within this purview, we test the eigenvalues of the selected assets from the NSM and use their respective eigenvectors and inverse participation ratios to determine the stocks that drive the market dynamics. A method of obtaining a realistic implied correlation matrix for a hypothetical portfolio of some given assets selected from those considered in the empirical correlation matrix of the assets is considered. The positive implied correlation matrix shows that the corresponding assets in the NSM move in the same direction, meaning that portfolio diversification is not an optimal investment strategy. Hence, investing on derivative assets like call and put options is recommended. Further SSMCD implications of the analyses are foreshadowed. Also, we develop the links among How to cite this paper: