Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The House of Representatives has reassured the Securities and Exchange Commission (NSE) under the leadership of Mr Lamido Yuguda, the Director-General, of its readiness to provide support by way of enabling laws to aid the growth of the capital market.
The House Committee on Capital Markets and other Institutions chaired by Mr Babangida Ibrahim gave this assurance when he held a meeting with the new management of the apex capital market regulator in Abuja.
According to him, with the issues the nation is currently facing as a result of COVID-19, the capital market is an option that can rescue the economy from collapse.
“The meeting with the new management of the SEC has been very fruitful. We had discussions on some of the challenges that the market is presently facing.
“We have all agreed that there is need to work together to substantially reduce these challenges. These challenges include policy issues, legislative issues and can also be operational issues,” the lawmaker said.
Speaking further, he said, “But what is important is that we have all agreed that there is need to look inwards to see how best we can boost confidence in the market and to also make sure that the process of investing in the capital market is as simple as possible.”
Mr Ibrahim said the National Assembly was ready to work with the SEC to ensure that the processes in the capital market as easy as possible to allow free entry and exit to investors.
He said, “We want to see at the end of the day that there is an easy entry and exit and that the processes are as simple as possible.
“People should be able to buy and sell at their convenience without any complexity in the process. You can invest in the market today and decide to divest tomorrow, you get your little profit and move on.”
“We all agreed that these type of discussions will be as regular as possible, we will continue to exchange of ideas and be honest and sincere in our approach to ensure that we bring a new lease of life to the Nigerian capital market,” he added.
The congressman, therefore, urged investors to continue to be patient as the issues are worked out to further boost confidence in the market adding that the National Assembly would note the key areas that require amendments like the laws, policies that require change, procedures that require adjustments among others and work on them.
“We wish to tell investors that they should continue to be patient with us as we work out these issues to boost their confidence.
“We are aware of their plight especially their experiences in the recent past, but we will do our best to restore confidence in the market. We want to assure investors that with the new Management we have now at the SEC, we are going to take the capital market to the next level,” he added.
In his remarks, the SEC boss commended the committee on its interest in making the capital market transparent and more investor-friendly.
“This committee is very important to us at the SEC. We have had very useful discussions with the Chairman and he has assured the SEC of the co-operation and support of this committee as we set out to discharge our responsibilities.
“The National Assembly and the SEC are very passionate about the same things like investor protection and making the capital market processes less cumbersome so that investors can access their monies readily that it is at the moment. We hope to work together to achieve a capital market that we would all be proud of,” Mr Yuguda said.
