Economy
SEC Expresses Concerns Over Proliferation of Illegal Investment Scheme Operators
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The persistent proliferation of operators of illegal investment schemes in the country has continued to give the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sleepless nights.
According to the Director-General of SEC, Mr Lamido Yuguda, these operators are a huge threat to the Nigerian capital market, and steps must be taken quickly to combat them.
In his New Year message in Abuja, Mr Yuguda assured of a renewed onslaught against promoters of such schemes.
He said that last year alone, the commission sealed off the offices of four of such illegal operators that had defrauded innocent citizens of billions of naira and assured that the organisation would continue its enforcement actions to ensure that such illegal entities are not allowed to operate.
“The SEC has been fighting a serious war against Ponzi schemes; we have been alerting people. We have said that investors should only deal with registered operators that have the registration of the Commission, we have their list on the SEC website and we have always said that if you go to an operator or when an operator approaches you, you must confirm that he is a licensed operator with the SEC.
“We have our numbers on how to reach our offices in the zones, and we have done a lot of sensitizations in terms of seminars, webinars all in an effort to discourage people from going to Ponzi schemes.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people continue to patronize these Ponzi schemes, we have had cases that have been reported to us, our enforcement department and the police unit have been on many of these cases trying to resolve the cases that have been reported to us.
“The commission has also continued to employ its compliance tool to ensure that only fit and proper capital market operators practice in the market. This has resulted in an improved level of compliance with filing of prudential returns rising to 96% in 2022 compared with 81% in 2021,” Mr Yuguda stated.
The DG expressed confidence that as the results of the various initiatives the commission is implementing begin to manifest in 2023 gradually, the agency, and indeed the capital market, will witness uncommon development in securities issuance businesses, especially as it affects digital assets, commodities trading ecosystem, custodianship of assets, and Fintech among others.
“With the implementation of the Revised Capital Market Master Plan, the market will also witness renewed confidence expected to attract fresh investments from domestic and foreign investors.
“Although 2023 is an election year and market activities may typically slow down before and during the general elections, we are hopeful that the improved awareness and positive electioneering campaigns will lead to peaceful elections and a quick return to the pre-election levels of investment activities,” he disclosed.
On some of the achievements of the commission in the last year, Mr Yuguda disclosed that on Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), in order to comply with the requirements of both the GIABA Mutual Evaluation Report(MER) Follow-Up Process and the FATF International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) requirements to avoid Nigeria being placed on the FATF public grey list at the Plenary after the deadline in October 2022, the commission approved the Rules and Regulations of the Virtual Asset Service providers b. Amendments of the sector-specific regulations to repeal the 2013 SEC AML/CFT Regulations and enactment of the 2022 AML/CFT Regulations.
On Fintech, the DG stated that SEC would pursue various initiatives, including sensitization programmes on Crowdfunding, adding that to further strengthen and encourage developments in the Fintech space, the commission resuscitated the Regulatory Incubation program during the year.
Giving an update on the Investments and Securities Bill (ISB) review, the SEC DG said the organisation presented the ISB to the National Assembly for its legislative consideration and a public hearing was successfully organised on September 20, 2022. The Bill has successfully gone through the 3rd reading at the House of Representatives in December 2022 and will be presented to the Senate on resumption in January 2023 for its concurrence.
“We are hopeful that the Bill will be passed into law before the end of the 9th National Assembly. With less than six months to the end of the 9th National Assembly come June 2023, we believe that the Investments and Securities Bill (ISB) will be passed in the coming months. The ISB, if passed into law, will align the enabling Act with the realities and trends in capital market regulation and practice in Nigeria and abroad,” he stated.
Mr Yuguda assured that the commission would continue to provide extra support to the registered commodities trading platforms to complement the government’s renewed diversification efforts in agriculture. Engagement with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) will continue in order to expedite action on the review, approval and publication of commodities standards.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited again failed to get out the danger zone on Friday after it further shed 0.33 per cent at the close of transactions.
The woes of the domestic stock exchange was compounded by the sustained weak investor sentiment after finishing with 19 price gainers and 40 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
Berger Paints lost 10.00 per cent to close at N35.10, C&I Leasing declined by 9.86 per cent to N5.03, MeCure Industries slipped by 9.77 per cent to N27.70, Champion Breweries depleted by 9.72 per cent to N13.00, and The Initiates crashed by 9.66 per cent to N10.75.
Conversely, NCR Nigeria gained 9.94 per cent to finish at N19.35, McNichols grew by 9.82 per cent to N3.02, Eunisell rose by 9.24 per cent to N70.90, Deap Capital jumped by 8.81 per cent to N1.73, and Ellah Lakes surged by 8.29 per cent to N11.75.
Data showed that Wema Bank was the most active stock yesterday, selling 90.9 million units worth N1.7 billion, Consolidated Hallmark traded 78.3 million units valued at N317.3 million, AXA Mansard exchanged 32.4 million units for N430.6 million, Access Holdings sold 23.4 million units worth N511.8 million, and Zenith Bank transacted 22.5 million units valued at N1.4 billion.
At the close of trades, investors bought and sold 527.2 million shares worth N15.4 billion in 24,637 deals compared with 619.6 million shares valued at N16.5 billion in 24,865 deals recorded a day earlier.
This indicated that the trading volume, value, and the number of deals contracted by 14.91 per cent, 6.67 per cent and 0.92 per cent, respectively.
Business Post reports that the insurance space slipped by 2.15 per cent, the banking counter shrank by 0.88 per cent, the consumer goods index fell by 0.47 per cent, the energy industry slumped by 0.25 per cent, and the industrial goods sector depleted by 0.11 per cent, while the commodity segment closed flat.
On the last trading day of the week, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 501.74 points to 149,524.81 points from 150,026.55 points and the market capitalisation contracted by N319 billion to N94.998 trillion from N95.317 trillion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of Afriland Properties Plc and Air Liquide Plc extended the positive run of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by a 0.07 per cent on Friday, November 7.
Afriland Properties Plc appreciated by N1.52 during the session to end at N20.73 per unit compared with the previous day’s N19.21 per unit, and Air Liquide Plc rose by 90 Kobo to close at N10.00 per share versus the preceding session’s N9.10 per share.
This raised the market capitalisation of the trading platform by N1.50 billion to N2.190 trillion from the N2.189 trillion it ended a day earlier, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased by 2.51 to 3,661.07 points from the 3,658.56 points it ended on Thursday.
The bourse recorded a price loser yesterday and it was Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc, which fell by 15 Kobo to close at N40.00 per unit, in contrast to the previous day’s N40.15 per unit.
During the trading session, the volume of securities traded by the market participants went down by 57.9 per cent to 197,833 units from the previous day’s 221,284 units, the value of securities decreased by 66.3 per cent to N4.0 million from N11.9 million, while the number of deals went up by 9.1 per cent to 24 deals from 22 deals.
When the market ended for the day, Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc was the most traded stock by value with a year-to-date sale of 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 170.3 million units transacted for N8.0 billion, and Air Liquide Plc with 507.4 million units traded for N4.2 billion.
InfraCredit Plc was also the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units sold for N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units worth N419.7 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units transacted for N524.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, November 7, by 16 Kobo or 0.12 per cent to close at N1,436.58/$1, in contrast to the N1,436.74/$1 it ended a day earlier.
Equally, the Nigerian Naira gained against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by 21 Kobo to finish at N1,882.35/£1 compared with Thursday’s closing price of N1,882.56/£1 and improved against the Euro by 19 Kobo to trade at N1,657.52/€1 compared with the previous day’s N1,657.71/€1.
Once again, the domestic currency retained its previous day’s value of N1,446/$1 at GTBank forex counter, and at the parallel market, it closed flat at N1,450/$1 during the trading day.
The Naira stability is hinged on continued FX interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and overall investor sentiment which continues to get backing from strong external reserves and expectations of sustained high crude oil prices.
Nigeria’s gross external reserves increased to $43.324 billion as of November 6, up from $43.197 billion at the end of October.
This week, the country saw a 477 per cent oversubscribed Eurobond raise which provided additional support for the local currency outlook as it signifies good foreign investment sentiments on the Nigerian economy.
In the crypto market, there were some gains as investors clawed back after recent losses as economic data suggests a December Federal Reserve rate cut could be very much back on the table.
Amid the government shutdown and lack of official statistics, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey released on Friday showed that suggest the central bank might have to re-consider plans not to cut rates again at its final meeting of the year in December.
Litecoin (LTC) added 10.7 per cent to sell at $99.97, Dogecoin (DOGE) expanded by 8.2 per cent to $0.1795, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 6.6 per cent to $0.5791, Ripple (XRP) gained 4.2 per cent to close at $2.31, Binance Coin (BNB) oared by 2.8 per cent to $993.06, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 2.8 per cent to $3,445.19, Solana (SOL) increased by 2.3 per cent to $160.36, and Bitcoin (BTC) advanced by 0.5 per cent to $102,371.77, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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