Economy
ISB Confers SEC New Investigative, Enforcement Powers—Lawmaker
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, Mr Babangida Ibrahim, has disclosed that the Investments and Securities Bill (ISB) recently passed by the upper chamber of the National Assembly has conferred the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) new powers to investigate capital market infractions and apply sanctions to culprits.
Speaking in an interview in Abuja recently, the lawmaker said this is one of the advantages of the new piece of legislature, which is awaiting passage in the Senate.
According to him, the bill has provisions that will inspire the confidence of both local and foreign investors as they can be assured that the regulators have been sufficiently empowered to deal with malpractices that undermine confidence in the market.
Mr Ibrahim stated that foreign investors and market participants would also be attracted to the Nigerian market because they will have comfort in the fact that the Bill seeks to mirror standard investor-protective provisions and practices in advanced jurisdictions, which the foreign participants are already familiar with.
On the reason for the new bill, the lawmaker stated that the current enabling law for the Nigerian capital market, the Investments and Securities Act, No. 29 of 2007 (ISA), was signed into law by late President Umar Musa Yar’adua in June 2007 (15 and half years ago) before the global financial crisis of 2008/2009.
Global financial regulators, he said, have made major changes in their regulatory instruments following the crisis to address some of the obvious gaps that contributed to the global economic disruption of the time, adding that such global shifts and other current trends in capital markets regulation have made it imperative to make major improvements to the Act to align our market with international standards.
According to him, the bill seeks to repeal the ISA and introduce new provisions that empower the SEC to collaborate with other regulatory bodies in the financial sector to manage and mitigate systemic risks as it confers new investigative and enforcement powers on the apex regulator, SEC, to effectively regulate the Nigerian capital market. It introduces the framework for the regulation of new products, including financial and commodities derivatives and financial market infrastructures, which are expected to lead to increased activities, and, thus, deepen the Nigerian capital market.
“The bill introduces stiffer sanctions in the form of increased fines and jail terms, which are commensurate with the severity of offences, and also serve as deterrence to potential future offenders.
“For instance, a jail term of not less than 10 years has been provided to address the menace of Ponzi schemes and illegal investment schemes that have caused heartache for thousands of Nigerians who have been victims of such scams. Other offences, such as market manipulation, insider trading, false statements in prospectuses etc. are also subject to severe punishment.
“The bill will ensure the diversification of the Nigerian economy away from a mono-product oil economy through the strengthening of the Nigerian commodities ecosystem with the trading of warehouse receipts and commodities contracts on the commodities exchanges.
“The bill also contains a legal framework for registration and regulation of new types of critical market infrastructures such as central counterparties, which will be responsible for managing the risks emanating from transactions in derivatives and other financial instruments, thereby ensuring the safety and integrity of our markets and boosting investors’ confidence,” he stated.
The lawmaker disclosed that federal government agencies, subnational, and supranational will be able to better access the capital market for both revenue bonds and project-tied bonds as the bill now contains adequate provisions that enable both corporates and governments to issue new instruments to develop the infrastructural requirements of the country.
According to him, “The bill will generally revitalize the Nigerian capital market, as it introduces regulation of new businesses, products and services that will deepen the market while equipping the apex regulator with appropriate powers to protect the market and enforce the provisions of the bill.
“In every sense of the word, this bill is truly a market-inspired bill. Inputs were received from all segments of the Nigerian capital market – the securities exchanges, commodities exchanges, the central counterparties, capital market operators and trade associations, chartered institute of stockbrokers, capital market professionals such as the legal practitioners as well as shareholders associations.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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