SEC Seeks Support of Risk Managers for Robust Capital Market

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

Efforts are being made to engage risk managers in Nigeria so as to make the capital market more robust, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said.

The Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, said his agency believes working with the risk managers was in the quest to make more products available in the capital market as well as deepen the market.

A few days ago, the Risk Management Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) held its 20th international conference and Mr Yuguda was one of the guests.

Speaking at the virtual event, the SEC chief disclosed that from the outbreak of the pandemic to the subsequent lockdown, the commission had worked with Capital Market Operators (CMOs) and other industry stakeholders to ensure that the market experiences minimal destruction.

“We have supported and acquired the emergence of various technology-driven innovations around market operations and products some of which include fintech, digital assets and crowdfunding,” he said.

“To support this, we developed a regulatory framework to galvanize these activities while focusing on managing the risk inherent in the products and activities in line with our mandate of market development and investor protection.

“In supporting these innovations, we hope to build a better market, attract more investors, and reduce the demographic of the average age that presently invest in our market. We also hope to include millions who were excluded from the capital market by making it easier for them to gain access.

“To achieve this, there is a need to collaborate with an organization such as yours and we hereby invite you to contribute in whatever way you can in building the Nigerian capital market.

“We invite you to do more in building the risk management capacity in the capital market, to conduct studies in risk capital market processes and products ad contribute your opinions and recommendations to our exposed rules,” he said.

Mr Yuguda said that with increased membership the association has been more feasible in capacity building in the area of risk management and in organizing excellent events such as this, adding that “since the SEC’s registration as an institutional member of the association, the commission has endured several benefits that cut across the capacity building and the opportunity to share ideas.”

“We will sustain this relationship and continue to contribute in any way we can to help the organization succeed and develop risk management practice in Nigeria,” the DG assured.

He described the theme for this year’s conference Risk Management in a Digital Era as apt and could not have been discussed at a more appropriate time as the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for the use of technology in the corporate world assuring that as the regulator of a dynamic capital market the SEC would see this technological transformation as an opportunity to change the way it works and the way it performs its regulatory functions.

Mr Yuguda, therefore, pledged the willingness of the agency to partner with RIMAN in its activities towards developing risk management practice in Nigeria.